What Stays
About the piece:
"What Stays" emerged from the intersection of absence and artistry in my life. Growing up with a mother lost to substances, I found myself drawn to photographing what I longed for—present, embodied motherhood. This poem speaks to how I've learned to see love by documenting it in strangers, finding unexpected healing in the process. The "her" shifts between my absent mother and the sacred act of mothering I now witness. Through my camera, I've discovered that sometimes we heal not by receiving what we needed, but by honoring its importance through creation. These photographs and words together form my testament to finding beauty in the aftermath of loss.
Andrea Nuxoll is a photographic artist whose work explores maternal relationships through absence and presence. Drawing from personal understanding of maternal void, she documents these intimate connections with sensitivity, creating evocative images that resonate with both personal loss and universal experience.
