The Longest Goodbye: Son of 80-year-old murder victim Lea Adri-Soejoko memorialises their ‘Life in London’ at this year’s London Photo Show
The son of a woman who was murdered on a Colindale allotment in 2017, will display photographs at The London Photo Show from 11th – 14th November, to remember his life in the city, as he leaves to make a new start on the coast.
54-year-old IT support analyst and photographer, Mark Adri-Soejoko, originally from Hendon, has curated the series of atmospheric and emotionally impactful images, entitled ‘Life in London’, as a way of ‘saying goodbye’ to a place that evokes both nostalgia and painful memories of his family life.
After the loss of both of his parents, Mark has setww up a new life in Shoreham by Sea with wife Frances and three stepsons. He has used photography as a means of dealing with the difficult emotions he has experienced, talking more on the theme behind the exhibition he explains:
“During lockdown I didn’t pick up my camera for almost a year, but my wife had been encouraging me to do something and seeing the opportunity for an exhibition was a trigger for me, especially with the decision to leave London.
“The pictures relate to memories of my life in London and dealing with the loss of my parents over the last eight years. My father to dementia and illness in 2013, my mother’s murder in 2017 and now my decision to leave London this year.
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Image caption: Chinatown, a place I would often visit with my father, part of the Life in London exhibition by Mark Adri-Soejoko
“I have chosen this subject as a way of saying goodbye and to help me mark the start of my life outside of London. This is about a life in London that is now over. This is my way of saying goodbye.
“The pictures are of things and places that trigger my memories and emotions, both good and bad,” he continues. “This is not a documentary; the memories are sometimes vague and possibly wrong, but they are what I remember right now. They will all touch on my relationship to my recent history.”