Fifteen Vaults
An unsparing photographic commentary on loneliness and a deeply personal meditation on the brittleness of family ties in the face of modern death by Brandon Tauszik
Photographer Brandon Tauszik met his grandmother only once. Estranged from the family, she lived alone at a YMCA for decades before passing away in 2020. Once Brandon's parents began receiving substantial monthly invoices from a storage facility in rural Massachusetts, he and his father Lowell were tasked with sorting the enigmatic contents of fifteen enormous, wooden storage vaults.
By unpacking the empty grief of estrangement, Tauszik uncovers the alienation running through the contemporary family experience. His intuitive photographs are punctuated by brief texts, including a copy of Shirley Tauszik’s obituary and an interview with Lowell Tauszik in which father and son discuss the legacies of mental illness and abandonment, and the remedial power of love.
Through lushly realized black-and-white photographs, Fifteen Vaults is an unsparing commentary on loneliness and aging, and a deeply personal meditation on the brittleness of family ties in the face of modern life and death.
Fifteen Vaults is published by Eggy Press.
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Stay safe and keep shooting.
Kim
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What a journey this project must've been. And such a brilliant idea..
I've been working on a project photographing storage facilities for awhile now. Unlike this project, my focus has been on their architecture and outsize effects on the surrounding landscape.
This work looks much more intimate and is really well done. Looking forward to checking out the book.