Finalist: Best Cinematic Image @ Waterford International Film Festival
Finalist: Best Photo Series @ Tirana Photo Festival
THE WIDOW
As Women, we are often defined by our status: wife, mother, widow. So, how in the midst of deep personal grief do we shed the preconceptions of widowhood on the road to our own rebirth?
The Widow (part 1) started life as a short film concept. Like grief itself, it has shape-shifted several times. Sometimes moving, sometimes still. Sometimes 3D and immersive, sometimes flat, presented here as a series of self-portraits. A form of creative catharsis after my partner died.
In the autumn of 2021, in the midst of loss, I threw myself into the dour moods of the Finnish landscape. I began to think about how I could express my thoughts and feelings, where often there were no words to convey them. As a widow, you suffer not only the loss of your lover, of your life partner, but also often a large piece of your identity that was tied to them and the life that you had together.
The gloom leant itself to quiet introspection. I began to notice myself moving as one with nature as seasons came and went. Where once we threw ourselves on funeral pyres or dressed in black rags, now we learn to stand in our own power once again. And so I played out the stereotypes and tropes of grief, both those I felt and those I had put onto me, dragging them to extremes. Dancing in the liminal space between death and new life.
Tracking my personal evolution. The messy route to rebirth. How I feel and how I am perceived. Creating my own world where I am both God and monster. Editing my own DNA.
This is the first series of images I am releasing from The Widow project, with the next due to come out later in 2024. I am also working on a number of installation pieces using the fragments of video that were recovered. I would love to collaborate with a sound artist to create something more immersive.
Beki Cowey is a photographer and artist. Born in North Yorkshire, U.K., and most recently based in London and Helsinki. She is currently traveling and trying to figure out quite where in the world she belongs. Her photography career began in the early 2000s when she dropped out of her fashion studies, picked up a camera, and jumped on a tour bus with a friend’s band.
Her work has since been published and exhibited internationally. Having moved away from photographic practice for a number of years the pandemic forced her to refocus and realise she would only find happiness where she was creatively fulfilled. She currently works commercially as a freelance music/fashion/lifestyle photographer. Her contemporary art practice explores both those living on the fringes of society and her own life experiences.
Current projects include: The Widow, centred around the tropes and stereotypes of widowhood and the processes of grief and subsequent rebirth that she has encountered since the death of her late partner; a long-play analogue documentary photography project exploring gentrification, touristification and resortification of neighbourhoods she has observed on her travels; and a book of her archival black & white nightlife, party and backstage photography from the years 2004-6.
More about Beki
Instagram: @beki_takes_pictures
Email: bekicowey@gmail.com
New website coming soon: Beki.work
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