The Day He Had a Heart Attack

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Xinya Xu, China
• Date of Photograph
  2022.02.17
• Website
  https://oliviaxu.myportfolio.com/work

Most of these snapshots were taken within 24 hours, the day my grandfather had a heart attack. The last photo was after he chose to forego medical treatment and return home to spend his remaining days surrounded by family. As we age, our physical and emotional fortitude wanes, and each medical emergency chips away at our once-sturdy façade. His past glories are now but a distant memory, replaced by a frail body with wrinkles and contortions. Yet, in the midst of this fragile state, he seemed to take on a new lease of life, akin to that of a newborn child, free from the worries and cares.

Xinya Xu is a visual artist who treats the everyday photograph as something that quietly holds the social and cultural texture of its moment. Working between the mundane and the unrepeatable, she photographs common life less as a record of one era than as a way to reach the feelings people share across language, culture, and history. Her work has been recognized by the Prix de la Photographie Paris, Fine Art Photography Awards and Tokyo International Foto Awards, and exhibited in Tokyo and Paris.