Water and the Grief of the Image Alana Perino, Assistant Professor, Johnson & Wales University Alana Perino is a photographer working out of Providence, Rhode Island. Their work Bay Isles Private Beach was included in the 2023-24 NBWM photography exhibition Reflections. Perino is currently working on the book project Pictures of Birds.
Figure 1. Alana Perino (b. 1988), Bay Isles Private Beach, 2021. Pigment print, courtesy of the artist.
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any members of my family see ghosts or communicate otherwise between the world of the living and the world of the dead. This has never been a gift of mine. When she was alive, my stepmother had a photograph on her nightstand of her younger self dancing with her father. There is a strange artifact above his head, a figment of light. She always claimed that this “halo” only appeared after he died. I always believed her.
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Despite their shared preference for pool water, my father and stepmother always choose to reside near a natural body of water. Eventually they retired on a barrier island off the coast of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico called Longboat Key. They moved there to live and to die. When my stepmother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, it became clear to me that the structure of our family, and our individual roles in that structure, were about to radically
| Winter 2025
New Bedford Whaling Museum VISTAS Vol 4 No 1 - 2025.indd 43
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