4 Sides of the Table

After the huge success of her first book I Imagined it Empty, which sold out in just a few months, photographer Ruth Manenti is excited to release her second photobook.

4 Sides of the Table gifts us the same sensibility as her first book, evoking a powerful emotional reaction in the reader.

It is about the time it takes for light to pass through a room, to eat a loaf of bread, or for someone to die. I know I will not live forever. One day there will only be traces of my life left. I too will be fleeting like the light of the sun coming through my window appearing on a piece of glass. Paying attention to all that is passing I know that death is approaching.

4 Sides of The Table was made from 2022-24. In the spring of 2017, I was with my mother in an empty room. The light of the sun was shining through the windows. Her best friend June was at her bedside reading poetry aloud. My mother died a few hours later.

Since I could no longer take pictures of my mother, it seemed natural to me to photograph June. I photographed her hands, her legs, from the back, from the front, partial views etc. feeling I could convince myself she was my mother more easily by photographing her in parts rather than in showing her whole figure.

During the months that I was visiting June, her daughter unexpectedly passed away. I thought after that she might not want to continue our time together taking pictures, but she did. The camera gave us the freedom we needed to imagine we belonged to each other.