An American Family.

In 2006 my oldest brother was responsible for the Nickel Mines school mass shooting where five young Amish girls lost their live at the hand of my brother. No one will ever understand why this seemingly well-adjusted father-of-three with no previous criminal record all of sudden carried out such a heinous crime, least of all us – his family, which he left in shatters. I lived in New York at the time, and my initial reaction was to escape reality and ignore the accident as much as possible. In the years following the tragedy I just occasionally visited my family and three years later I moved to Stockholm, Sweden. In early June of 2015, I made a life-changing decision when I decided to purchase a Leica. Photography, which I had only dabbled with as a teenager, suddenly became my new obsession. This past winter, when my mother was re-diagnosed with breast cancer and was given a short time to live, I realized that I didn't have much time left if I wanted to reconnect with my family and went to live with my parents in Pennsylvania for several months. Photographing my family members became an important part of the healing process for me and my family. I also decided to incorporate images of the Amish people who live in the surrounding areas, as my family formed a unique connection to these people in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy that happened, based on an incredible act of forgiveness on the part of the Amish.