Peyton Keeler-Cox
Olivia's Sewing Room Inkjet Print, 2022
Words and Images by Peyton Keeler-Cox
Photo Edited by Kelly Woodyard
How did your series come to be?
I actually started shooting this project around four years ago now without much in the way of an understanding of its ending. In my last year of University it was dedicated to spending an entire year working on one project that would be my thesis. These images you see were taken in the fall of 2022 and the man who lived and loved in this home died in 2021. This man was my 96 year old neighbor Roy, who lived across the street from my childhood home since I was very young. About five years ago, my family and I developed a deep relationship with Roy. I spent many afternoons in Roy’s home just sitting and talking with him, hearing about his life and his wife who had died a couple years prior. He began opening up to me in ways he hadn't with others. I sat in Roy's room in the hospital with my dad the day he passed away. I was the last person to see him alive. Roy entrusted my family with the management of his estate and personal items after his passing. Questions Nobody Asked Me is a body of images and archives that connects to themes of memory, loss, grief, care, and relationship. Roy’s home, to which the body of work takes place is the central environment and the heart of my relationship with Roy. It was the last living entity I had left of him and our relationship. I wanted to bring back his memory into the bare space and insert my presents as the now caregiver to his remembrances and stories, as someone who cares, loves, and admires everything he said, shared, and understood.
What's Left of Us Now Inkjet Print, 2022
Were there any challenges that came up while working on this project?
I think the greatest challenge I experienced during the duration of this project wasn’t the physical time limitation before the home was sold to the family that lives there now, but rather how to do someone's story and life justice when they aren’t here to see it. A couple of weeks before I began shooting this project, I had a conversation with my mum about Roy. I was nervous about how to do justice to him and our relationship in how it stands today, with him gone and myself left as the caregiver to his story. On the second day of photographing his home, one large yellow rose peeked in the window. The only blooming flower on his property. Roy and his wife, Olivia, had planted yellow roses all around the home every year until she died.— Something we always often talked about, and something that meant everything to him after she passed. Although Roy did give me permission before he died to share the parts of his story he shared with me in whatever manner I wanted, I also took this little moment as a sign from him.
His Story Now Inkjet Print, 2022
Describe your creative process in one word?
A way to heal.
What inspires you to pursue image-making?
My images and bodies of work typically are surrounded by ways of processing large emotions or relationships I have which are accompanied with an archive in some way. Recently someone in my life during a conversation said that my images/bodies of work are visual representations of me processing or grieving things in my life that I don’t heal or process any other way but through images which help me to move forward. Thus, I feel I am inspired to share stories that I am passionate about but also document in my own way common feelings or larger emotions we all feel and it pushes me to help tell others stories like this project in relation to me grieving Roy and our relationship in itself.
Heart of the Home Inkjet Print, 2022
What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?
About a month ago I saw the film Iron Claw which is an A24 film and I still think about it a lot. As many know A24 films are so cinematically brilliant and beautiful and in many ways that inspired me but also the deep relationships in the film and how they were documented and shown greatly positioned and inspired me to think about how I will in my next body of work care for the images when speaking about a relationship and how I can deeply approach it.
What advice would you give to people just starting out in photography?
Play. I had a professor when I was in University in my first year when I was seventeen end eachlecture and email with “go and play”. It wasn't until te last lecture on the last day of my first semester that I realized what he had meant. Photography is all about messes, and bumps, challenges, and victories but ultimately it’s about trying everything whether it will lead to success or failure but to not get caught up in its seriousness all the time but remember to play in it, with it and see what happens.
What is your favorite podcast to listen to?
I love podcasts and rely on them when I am on drives or walking around Toronto. I am a music lover and history nerd and I love when I can fill up my brain with new facts and understanding into the artists and genres I love or don’t know much about. Thus as of lately, I catch myself refreshing for a new podcast drop by “The Rhino Podcast” which dives into everything music, with interviews from classic musicians, to breaks downs of songs to music news.
How do you take your coffee?
Coffee is such a sacred process and meditation to me everyday and something that brings me great joy. Typically I drink just black coffee when I am out or indulging in it with others but some mornings when I need an extra rhythm in my step I will add some sweet vegan vanilla creamer.
Roy in a Photobooth
