A Video Portrait of Grandma Shepherd
Fall 2019

This project is what first sparked my interest in the medium of video as it allowed me to explore my personal relationships and histories and I discovered a love for moving image as a method of storytelling. The assignment asked me to create a video portrait of a person without using any images / footage of them. I was interested in exploring this concept of abstract representation and saw the project as an opportunity for some personal soul-searching and deeper exploration into my identity. I decided to do a portrait of my grandmother, who passed away when I was four. I have few memories of her and mostly know her only through the stories I’ve heard. Therefore, it was challenging to explore the search for lost answers and the vagueness behind knowing someone only through other people’s memories. I decided to use a lot of driving footage to capture the feeling of traveling back and returning to the heart.

Reflective Note : revisiting this project now feels immensely surreal because the beginning footage featuring a man playing a player piano is that of my father, who passed away in the fall of 2020. The piece was intended to be a portrait of his mother, but I now see it as a portrait of the pair of them.