©Ilana Grollman, Your Sweater on the Bed, 2024

In early November 2025, I was invited to CENTER’s Review Santa Fe. Being my first time in the Southwest and experience on the Reviewer side of the table, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As an educator, I love reviewing work; when others hear “critique,” they may shy away, but I love the experience of helping others through their ideas. Review Santa Fe is an incredibly welcoming experience, carefully cultivating meaningful projects and conversations. Living in a very rural area, this was an inspiring opportunity to see what is on the horizon of the photo world. I’m so excited to share a few of these projects over the first week of February.

Today, we’ll be sharing Ilana Grollman’s Just Know That I Love You

©Ilana Grollman, David on His Phone, 2024

Ilana Grollman (b. 2003; Baltimore, Maryland) is a photographer and filmmaker with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Emerson College. Her practices serve as a coping tool and a method of exploring themes such as loss or the oddities of time. Her work has been exhibited at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center Student Biennial, the Photographic Resource Center’s 2024 Student Show, Galerie Shibumi’s show Sanctuary, and twice with Emerson College’s Huret and Spector Gallery. She has also collaborated with her father to make multiple photo and poetry zines and was a photographer for a few art magazines at Emerson. Grollman’s project, Just Know That I Love You, was one of the ten shortlisted projects for the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards Student Competition.

Follow Ilana on Instagram: @ilanasfilm

©Ilana Grollman, Self-Portrait on the Bed, 2024

Just Know That I Love You

My mother, Rita Stein-Grollman, passed away on January 24th, 2023, from early onset of dementia. Her passing has dramatically changed how I view the world and make art. Before she got sick, my mom was a great librarian with a huge love for her students and an amazing poet. My dad was her caretaker as she started to slip away, and I was a bratty teen who didn’t know how to process any of this. Now that I am older, this project is one of my ways of processing. I have created all these images as a tribute to her, and also to keep her memory alive. I returned to our old home in Baltimore, where I spent time with her as a child, and traced her upbringing. I visited her old school, her old neighborhood, and explored Baltimore to learn more about her. In New York, which is where I primarily grew up with my parents, I photographed myself, my father, and our apartment to understand the different ways in which we experience grief. Finally, I looked outward, into nature, to find myself in the trees and find her in the water.

This experience has been healing, but my grieving will not end. Just Know That I Love You is for my mother and others that I have lost, who I know are looking down on me.

©Ilana Grollman, David Watching Home Videos, 2024

Epiphany Knedler: How did your project come about?

Ilana Grollman: Just Know That I Love You served as my BFA capstone project at Emerson College. My mother passed away about a year before I started making the work. At first, I had no intention of creating work exploring my grief. I had a different project in mind that vaguely touched on grieving. After talking with my teacher at the time, Lauren Shaw, she inspired me to pursue my grief head-on and use this project opportunity as a way to heal and create something meaningful. I am very grateful for that conversation and the support she gave me, as I believe Lauren helped me find the courage to explore something deeply personal through photography for the first time. I have found it to be a gratifying process.

When I was creating the work at school, the images were an immediate reaction to what I was experiencing, which felt jarring. This project allowed me to step into my mother’s world more and develop a new relationship with her. I’m not sure if the work has necessarily helped me process losing her, but I have definitely sat with my grief in a way that I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t made the work. Now that I have been living with these feelings for a few years, I have absorbed my grief. It has become a part of my everyday life. Taking a step back from the work has also allowed me to explore the evolution of my grief from a further distance and find ways to make the work feel more universal.

©Ilana Grollman, David With Your Bra, 2024

EK: Is there a specific image that is your favorite or particularly meaningful to this series?

IG: I view most of the images with equal weight because they were taken either at different stages during my grieving process or represent separate aspects of my relationship with my mom. However, the ones that stand out to me are Your Sweater on the Bed and David Watching Home Videos. My father and I collaborated on the portraits of him, as well as some of the photographs taken in our New York apartment. That collaboration is important to me, as it brings us closer together via our shared grief. With both of the images as well, I think my mother’s presence is a huge factor that makes them special, either with her clothing or seeing her on the TV screen.

©Ilana Grollman, Happy?, 2024

EK: Can you tell us about your artistic practice?

IG: I took a break from photography last January to focus on my last semester of undergraduate school. I’m a filmmaker as well, so I spent a lot of time working on writing and an internship I had at the time. I try to engage with a lot of different mediums to keep inspiration flowing, such as visiting museums, attending film screenings, and seeing live music. I was in a creative block for a while, but Review Santa Fe helped rejuvenate my spirit. I have recently returned to shooting with a very focused approach.

I have two modes of operating with photography. I take my camera out on walks, usually somewhere I haven’t been before or surrounded by nature, and let my gut and instinct guide me. This, for me, feels like collaborating with my mother and letting my emotions lead me to the photographs. I have been trying to develop a more spiritual lens for this work, specifically since I have come to terms with my grief. On the other hand, usually when working with my father, some images are shortlisted and thought of for months. My artistic practice combines spontaneity, collaboration, and a lot of visualization.

©Ilana Grollman, Are You Here?, 2024

 EK: What’s next for you?

 IG: I’m continuing my project, Just Know That I Love You, with this new, deeper spiritual lens attached to making the work, plus the collaboration element with my father. I’m not sure when it will end, but the ultimate goal is a photobook and a solo exhibition that will be combined with a short film. In addition, I am now beginning two new projects. One about the carnies of Coney Island, the other centered on the Williamsburg Bridge. I have some filmmaking projects in the works, plus I hope to make and sell more photography zines on my website as well! Finally, graduate school is also on the back of my mind.

©Ilana Grollman, Your Mother’s Gravesite, 2024

©Ilana Grollman, You Loved the Williamsburg Bridge, 2024

©Ilana Grollman, My Father’s Drawing, 2024

©Ilana Grollman, Reaching for You, 2024

©Ilana Grollman, Headless, 2024

©Ilana Grollman, Prayer or Reflection?, 2024

©Ilana Grollman, With Your Bookshelf, 2024

©Ilana Grollman, Your Journal, in a Labyrinth I Found, 2024

Epiphany Knedler is an interdisciplinary artist + educator exploring the ways we engage with history. She graduated from the University of South Dakota with a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Political Science and completed her MFA in Studio Art at East Carolina University. She is based in Aberdeen, South Dakota, serving as an Assistant Professor of Art and Coordinator of the Art Department at Northern State University, a Content Editor with LENSCRATCH, and the co-founder and curator of the art collective Midwest Nice Art. Her work has been exhibited in the New York Times, the Guardian, Vermont Center for Photography, Lenscratch, Dek Unu Arts, and awarded through Lensculture, the Lucie Foundation, F-Stop Magazine, and Photolucida Critical Mass.

Follow Epiphany on Instagram: @epiphanysk