In Memoriam: sa_ku_ra
The Chair Fulfilled
Recently we published an article entitled Articulating the Empty Chair. The premise of the article was that the power of photographs showing empty chairs comes from the viewer’s subconscious awareness that the chair isn’t fulfilling its purpose: to hold a human body. In response to that article, a new member of Utata posted a link to an intriguing set of photographs she called the Gladis Portraits.
It’s a truism that graduate students everywhere must learn to reconcile themselves with second-hand furniture. Sakura Handa was no exception. She salvaged an old chair for her apartment and recovered it with green velvet. The chair also gained a name: Gladis. Over time that chair became the stage for a series of informal portraits taken of her friends. Collectively those twenty-five photographs came to be called the Gladis Portraits.
In a very real way, the Gladis Portraits are the opposite of the Empty Chair. They are about the chair fulfilled. Most wonderfully fulfilled. Those photographs reveal the story of a woman who drew friends to her, who made them feel welcome and comfortable. In effect, the Gladis Portraits are as revealing of the photographer as they are of the subjects. The photographs can be said to comprise a sort of portrait of Sakura herself. We don’t see Sakura in the Gladis Portraits, but we do see the shape of her life. Her photographs show us just how empty an empty chair really is.
Sakura recently completed graduate school and accepted a teaching job. While moving to her new home, her new career, her new life, she was involved in a traffic accident. On July 15th she died as a result of her injuries. Her loss is deeply felt. We have inherited an empty chair that can never be filled.
But we are fortunate to have the Gladis Portraits. In our hearts and minds there will always be a green velvet chair filled with the smiling faces of her friends.
Editorial note: Sakura was a new member to our group and posted her set of Gladis Portraits to one of our threads, so we use them with her permission. Though we didn’t know her long, she fit in well with our tribe and the last thing she said to us about these photographs was “I’m totally floored that my Gladis portraits found an audience. Thank you all.” We share them in this spirit, hoping for the larger audience who might find the same sensitive light in them that we did. Thank you, Sakura
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
