Grace in Balance

Grace in Balance

I created Grace in Balance in 2020, during a very personal period of my life, after the death of my aunt. She was more than an aunt to me. We were extremely close, so close that people often assumed she was my mother. Her presence in my life meant a great deal to me, and losing her changed something in me. Before she passed, she had been through a lot. She had been ill, and I remember feeling that, after everything she had endured, perhaps she had reached a point where she was ready to leave peacefully. It is difficult to explain that feeling. There was grief, but there was also a strange sense that she had found the peace she had been searching for. That feeling became the beginning of Grace in Balance. The basket in these photographs comes from something I grew up seeing within African communities. Baskets are practical objects used to carry things from one place to another, traditionally often balanced on the head. They hold weight. They are made for carrying. For me, the basket became more than an object. It became a representation of the burdens we carry through life grief, responsibility, pain, memories, expectations and the things we sometimes carry silently. The three pieces tell a story. In the first, the weight of the basket overwhelms the woman. It represents those moments when what we carry becomes difficult to bear. In the second, she begins to lift her spirit. The burden has not disappeared, but something within her has changed. She is still carrying it, but she is no longer allowing it to completely define her. In the final piece, the basket is gone. She stands without that weight, with a strength that feels different from the beginning. For me, this is not simply about overcoming a burden. It is about reaching a place of acceptance. When I look at these images now, I see my aunt in them. She was strong. She carried her own struggles, and eventually, I believe, she found the peace she wanted. That is the truth behind Grace in Balance. I was not simply photographing a woman carrying a basket. I was trying to understand what it means to carry something heavy and still remain graceful. I was trying to understand grief, strength, acceptance and the possibility of letting go. These three photographs are pieces from my heart. They are also for anyone who has ever had to carry something they did not choose, something they could not explain, or something they carried quietly while continuing to move forward. Grace in Balance is my tribute to my aunt, but it is also a reflection on the human spirit, the grace we find in difficult moments, the strength that rises within us, and the peace that can come when we finally allow ourselves to let go.