Pieces of Me: Artifacts of Identity

Pieces of Me: Artifacts of Identity began with a quiet moment of reflection on the way personal objects can hold—and even define—our sense of self. The idea took shape after the passing of Steve, a connection Robert knew through a mutual friend. In the days that followed, several people pointed to one specific item that seemed to capture Steve’s essence: a pair of embroidered shorts.

“I was struck by how a single item could carry so much of a person’s identity,” Robert says. “It made me think about how the things we leave behind become our stand-ins, our storytellers.”

To honor that sentiment, Robert photographed the shorts at life-size scale and shared the image with others who knew Steve—offering a way to preserve this fragment of his story through art.

That single gesture led to a broader exploration of memory, meaning, and identity. Pieces of Me is a photographic inquiry into the objects that shape us—those we hold onto, those that outlast us, and those that, in their quiet symbolism, reveal who we are. Each image is a meditation on the emotional weight personal artifacts carry, and the way they help tell the story of a life.