Sarker Protick’s “What Remains”

For his series “What Remains,” the Bangladeshi photographer Sarker Protick photographed his grandparents John and Prova as they navigated old age. Protick began the project as a way to reconnect with his grandparents, both of whom were housebound in their Dhaka apartment due to health problems. Although Protick visited them every day, he often stayed only a short while. “After five or ten minutes,” he told me, “I wasn't sure what to talk about with them.” Soon Protick began to use photography as a way to lengthen his stays, and to learn how his grandparents felt as they confronted old age.

Protick continued the project for a year, developing along the way a technique involving overexposure, creating what he calls “high key” images. In 2012, his grandmother died, and he put the project on hold. He still visits his grandfather weekly, but says that he no longer needs to rely on his camera to pass the time. “Sometimes,” he told me, “photography gives you more than a photograph.”