Not going to let a little rain spoil my parade….

Motherhood

Family Kitchen

Here's some from my experiment the other day. I converted them to black and white because I felt that the colors were too distracting. I especially like the top one as a family portrait. In these pictures I played with the gaze - switching photographers and rules and keeping the subject not quite sure what was happening - all the while taking pictures. I tightened the restrictions as the exercise continued.

As I move on, I'm going to focus on pictures of different families and see how the work continues to progress.

New Directions

A week has gone by since residency and I've taken on a new direction with my work. Think I need to review where I've gone through this whole process. My work started with "kitsch" and "sentimentality".  I was designing things to be pretty. When I applied to grad school my incoming portfolio was kind of a documentary, performance hybrid. After this I decided to tackle images of a mother/daughter relationship struggle for power and understanding. I resorted to props and got too literal and into the use of metaphors. During this time I experimented with collage. For the next semester I started taking apart my father's street photography and snapshot work and put it into a collage with a social justice focus. I decided to be more direct but again crossed the too literal and metaphoric line. In addition, I started doing my own street photography and enjoyed catching things in the moment. Now after the fourth residency I'm again picking up my camera to combine all that I have learned throughout the program.

I am
1. Using some of my father's snapshots and street photography in the body of work, but using it as it stands.
2. Using my own sensibilities as a portrait photographer. But blurring lines.
3. Using my newfound love of street photography, but again blurring lines.
4. Using my collage sensibilities in a more curatorial form.

I'm focusing on "the gaze" and the family in the form of a portrait/snapshot blur. Taking into account some of my father's work, a family history, the family album or archive and joining it all into a body of work.

Mother Liberty to Empty Desk

Empty

North Main and Clinton Streets

There is an intersection in the first ward that is very active. At this junction stands elementary schools, a convenience store, a liquor store and a fried chicken place. It is one block from the projects. Google earth went by in September 2013 after a recent shooting of a 14 year old girl, Nazareh Buggs. She was shot dead while walking down the street with her friends. A victim of gang gunfire, she was laid to rest never having achieved all of the promise that her life would have brought. Many social factors throughout the history of our country have led up to violent crimes such as this. There is no easy answer. This is my study of the corner.