Eudora’s Tesseract* is a visual narrative of my great-grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia in the last years of her life. Utilizing magical realism as a means by which to shift between real and imagined worlds, I share her experiences from the perspectives of alternative timelines of daily moments and random memories. As she cycled between worlds of weakened neural connections, I served as her confidante, witness, and memory. She passed away in 2014, and most of these images have been hidden away until now. In this time of pandemic-induced isolation, I have gathered this compilation of digitally solarized, expired, and instant medium-format film photographs, depicting her reflection, her surroundings, and this convoluted stage of her life. My great-grandmother worked as a sugarcane laborer in the fields of Clifton Hall plantation, which can be seen directly from the doors and windows of her house. This house was built from her hard, life-long labor, in her courageous effort to mold a new possibility for herself and her descendants. The toll this labor took on her body is evidenced through her rapid mental decline, although her understanding of self and her connection to her environment never wavered.

This is my telling of her story, from one generation to another.

* the term Tesseract is used here in both the scientific definition of a cube in the 4th dimension, and the imaginary object used to connect to other dimensions. From her line to mine is four generations and together we are an imaginary time-warp portal of causation, with the camera operating as our transportation through portals. I am because she is, and she is here before you because I am her reverberation. In unison and across dimensions we are together shifting space and time.