I recently participated in photographer Monyeka’s self-initiated project “from them, through us”.
The project is a portrait series of first-generation creatives. Each person is asked to bring their work and an object that ties back to their familial history.
I brought figs.
Mami Mitty and her fig tree
My grandma loves to travel. At any given time of the year this woman will be out and about, but every year in the summer time she makes it a point to go back to her home in the mountain town of Mexico. Summer 2021, I visited her there for about two weeks and spent time with her and her friend Modesta who graciously hosted me.
On the morning that the following photos were taken, Modesta let me know my grandma had gone up to her house and was in her garden. I found her trying to fix a loose gutter on the roof of her garden shed. After we fixed it, she proceeded to bring some buckets and had us climb the tree to collect her all time favorite fruit, figs, which just so happened to be at peak season.
My grandma has always been resilient, you can not tell her she can’t climb this fig tree because it’s dangerous, she will laugh in your face and I love that about her. So there we were that morning collecting buckets of figs and climbing her tree. After, she had us cut open the figs and lay them out in the sun for them to dry. This process turns the figs into what we call “orejones” they are one of her brother’s favorites and my grandma was planning on bringing him some on her way back.
You can read and view more pictures about this visit here:
Images from Monyeka’s photoshoot
Studio photos by Monyeka.com table arrangement by your’s truly
Photo shown is of my grandma,Mami Mitty and her closest sister Tia Rosenda