Maria's Last Smile

• Prize
  Silver in Analog / Film/Portrait
• Photographer
  Joel Benguigui
• Agency / Studio
  Joel Benguigui
• Technical Info
  Bronica Rf645, Kodak Tri-x
• Photo Date
  August 2023

I took the first portrait of Maria, my biological mother, in 2017 when I met her for the first time in Kupang, East Timor. 6 years later, this would be my last visit. Maria has been suffering from sever dehydration, an untreatable kidney stone and U.T.I. for months, and yet she's sitting on the side of her bed smiling at me before taking a nap. Maria Juliana Lewar passed away in her home in Larantuka, a few weeks after my visit, 9 months after my adoptive mother passed away in the South of France.