What the Paper Remembers

Photographer

Jiajie Lyu

Category

Fine Art Photography - Conceptual

Company

Submission Group

Professional

Year

2026

Country / Region:

United States

In May 2025, I returned to my grandparents’ home in China after years abroad. Among the traces left by a recent flood, I found an old family album that brought back memories of my grandfather’s funeral. During the seven-day mourning ritual, my family folded gold and silver paper offerings for the afterlife. Inspired by this repeated gesture, I created a series of folded-paper jewelry and photographed my grandfather surrounded by family photographs and familiar objects. The series explores how memory is carried through images, rituals, and the hands of one generation to the next.