Towers: Holding On

On April 4, 2020, Nitza Magalay Garay, mother of Edwin Torres and matriarch of her family, passed away. It was early in the pandemic — too early to know the risks of undergoing an elective surgery or convalescing in a rehab facility in New York where COVID-19 would go on to take many thousands of lives.

Since that time, like many others across the world, Edwin learned what so often is only gained through grief: family is safety, stability, purpose.

These are family photos — intimate moments caught on film of the people who loom large over Edwin’s life. Torres. Towers. Like you, I am an outsider invited to observe. These are the photos he has chosen to show us to preserve the memory of his family. They are honest moments, not the kind typically broadcast for public consumption, but the kind that take root in our foundation and form a family’s history.  I study the subjects to better know the artist: their faces, expressions, posture, surroundings. Their story is one of courage, migration, loss, joy, pain, perseverance, and triumph. It is set in Puerto Rico and the Bronx, NY. The protagonists are strong, full of life, flawed, but admirable.

This project is dedicated to them, and especially to the memory of Edwin’s mother, Nitza.

‍