Ian Willms We Shall See

“On November 10th, 2014, my father had a catastrophic accident while on a motorcycle tour of South Africa. I went to find him, paralyzed and comatose in a hospital. I visited him three times a day. I knew the names of the hospital staff, the menu items offered by the cafeteria, even the access code for the security doors to the ICU ward. We hadn’t been close for much of my life, but this accident brought us together. Weeks later, he awoke and regained his basic senses—it appeared that a new future could emerge.”
— Ian Willms

We Shall See is the series of photographs that Ian Willms initiated while visiting his father in the hospital. The images began as Instagram posts documenting the details of their daily routine, created in an effort to visually communicate and cope with the emotional struggle of facing his father’s traumatic injuries. The series quickly grew to include hundreds of photographs.

Willms’ father suddenly died in May 2015. “His unexpected loss meant a violent transition within me; from an optimistic hardship to an undefined and unexplored emotional void,” Willms explains. “Recovery from loss is a long process. Only time heals these emotional wounds. So, we shall see.”