I found a small lemon tree: PART II (Revisited)

by Emilie Sandy

This ongoing body of work began during my MA in Photography, originally titled (In)visible Communicators—a project that explored spiritual communication through collaborative portraiture and film with spiritual mediums. As the work developed, the focus shifted intimately and irreversibly: both of my parents died during the project. They became, quite literally, my invisible communicators, and the heart of the work.

My father's terminal brain tumour and the subsequent passing of both parents redirected the project into a deeply personal investigation of after-death communication. Through image-making, film, and collaboration with other spiritual mediums, I began to explore how grief, memory, and spiritual presence could manifest visually.

Part II was initiated when I discovered my mum’s inquest letter—a document I had avoided for ten years. When I finally read it, I was struck not only by its clinical detail—particularly the listing of her organ weights—but by how it oddly distanced me from the rawness of her death. That moment, strangely disembodied and forensic, planted a seed: one day I would revisit this through photography and moving image.

The opportunity to present at PechaKucha at SVA on June 17, 2025, became the deadline that moved thought into action. It gave shape to new work created in response to the letter and my evolving grief—images and film that sit with discomfort, intimacy, and the quiet complexity of loss. This new chapter continues to question what remains visible, what is sensed, and how we carry the presence of those no longer physically here.