Ornaments of the body

Jewelry, the ornaments you wear. With every ring, necklace, earring or bracelet that you drape off your body you choose to further extend a piece of yourself, a piece that glitters, or catches the eye of another, a piece that tells a story. Each model I interviewed told me the importance behind the pieces they decorated their bodies with and throughout every piece there was one common thread, storytelling. Whether it be the earrings your grandmother got you for Hanukkah or the ring you found on your high school bathroom floor. Every “jewelry-wearer” I spoke to was excited to share their story. These ornaments hang off our bodies every day, the wearer knows the backstory, the significance, but nobody else does… until you ask. The tarot cardholder, Vivian Zofia said "I wear jewelry to mark the different phases in my life and the places I have traveled”, every stone ring on her finger acted as a time capsule of a place she had visited or a phase of her life.

Family heirlooms have a different kind of significance to people. When I was sixteen I was given a necklace my mom had been gifted for her sweet sixteenth. The necklace was my time capsule to my mother's youth.

On my mom's 16th birthday her Mother and Father handed her a box with a small golden heart on a mid-length chain. She wore it for years. The necklace that once hung on sixteen-year-old Sheila Rodgers, laid against the neck of her daughter, me. That's special, irreplaceable.

In some ways, the concept of “Refresh” or “Renew” is completely canceled by wearing jewelry. While photographing this series I found out I wasn't alone when saying that jewelry holds memory. Wearing these memory encapsulating pieces often allow people to hold a piece of the past with them.