When we lose someone, the objects left behind become a physical foundation for our memories.

My Late Grandfather, Orin Jay Givens passed away November 15th, 2015. The day after his funeral, I went into his workshop and photographed his tools.

"It’s a Good Thing We’re Tough" is a series of photographs about loss and the relationship between memory and artifact. As I photographed my grandfather's tools, I began vividly reminiscing about the stories and creations that explained the scratches and the marks that covered these objects. Some of the narratives were real, some were not -- In the same way that memories are almost always a blend of fact and fiction.

Like the objects themselves, these photographs attempt to describe a history of a man and the connection passed through physical objects from one generation to the next.