Zahra Hoccom’s Veil Series explores the profound emotional complexities of loss, estrangement, and grief through the symbolism of the veil. Beginning in 2017, the series uses a garment once worn by Hoccom’s grandmother — who was herself estranged from her son — to reflect the artist’s own experience of familial rupture and loss. The veil, worn by portrait subjects in digital photographs, serves as both a literal and symbolic covering, embodying what is hidden in the emotional landscape between the living and the dead.

 

​Shifting from digital photography to the tactile, hands-on process of Photoetching, Hoccom’s practice evolved, with the physicality of the medium mirroring the messy, layered nature of grief. The death of her grandmother in 2023 added further resonance to the work, expanding its exploration of mourning and the historical significance of the veil. Drawing on its associations with weddings, funerals, and religious traditions, the veil becomes a powerful metaphor for concealment, memory, and identity.

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In The Veil Series, Hoccom invites us to consider how loss is not just an absence but a deeply emotional and psychological experience, one that can never be fully understood or captured, but can instead be felt through the layers of visual and material expression.