Dad Having a Nap, 2008

"My father was always the king of naps. As a child, I remember the Swiss precision with which my dad would retire to the living room every day after lunch for a fifteen-minute nap. When I was taking care of him, of course, he was ninety-six, so napping was more of an occupation than a hobby. Carla bought him the blinders to wear since he did a lot of his napping in that chair during the day. Sometimes, when I was over, we'd take a nap together, each of us sitting in our respective chairs. We'd wake up, smile at each other, and then I'd go and get him some orange juice."

—Phillip Toledano

Aperture is pleased to offer our collectors a very special limited-edition photograph by Phillip Toledano after first highlighting his Phonesex series in Issue #193 of Aperture magazine. Published in book form in June 2010, the series Days with My Father is a body of work Toledano started after his mother's death in 2006. His father, who was suffering from a lack of short-term memory, needed his attention. Toledano documented their relationship in a form of a journal until his father's death. Intimate and touching, but never intrusive, the work addresses the emptiness, love, sadness, loss, and hope experienced by father and son during this fleeting period.

In the late summer of 2008, Toledano posted the work on the web. "I'm not really sure why I did it," he said. "Perhaps, in some way, I just needed to unburden myself, and it was easier to do it with people I couldn't see. I certainly didn't expect anyone to be listening. To my great surprise, after a few days, the site started getting thousands of visits a day. I read the new comments every day, and each time I do, I'm deeply moved. Losing my parents before I was forty has been very hard, but that pain has been softened by the gentle and honest voices of the thousands who have spoken to me. I may be an only child, but I'm not alone."

Digital C-Print
Image Size: 10 1/8 x 13 7/16 inches
Paper Size: 11 x 14 inches
Edition of 20 + 4 Artist Proofs
Signed and numbered by the artist

Phillip Toledano (b. 1968, London, England) has had work appear in Vanity Fair, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, Wallpaper, London Times, Independent Magazine, and Le Monde. Toledano’s exhibition, “Days with My Father” toured various institutions around the world, including Singapore; Lodz, Poland; Berlin; Cork, Ireland; and Philadelphia.