“I make my photographs with a Mamiya 7II. Shooting medium format film allows for not only exceptional print quality, but also forces me to consider the making of images more carefully. I have to slow down, and this allows for a much more conscious photograph. I’ve tried other ways of making (both digital and large format), but have found medium format to offer the perfect balance of flexibility and intentionality.”
“With the camera I explore my personal and complex relationship to place and identity as a white woman living in an African-American community.
I wasn’t until the age of 5 or so when I finally realized I wasn’t black. My freckles had come and neighbors no longer laughed and called me “light skinned”. I was different. Yet, this was and is still my home and my community. Photography allows me to investigate and to navigate these surroundings, my relationships and my identity.
Each photograph represents a conscious exchange between subject and photographer. Photography’s “Othering” gaze is balanced with my personal relationship to the sitter. The resulting photographs strike a delicate balance between intimacy and distance, giving and taking.
Navigating between the record and the metaphor, these images of my personal landscape consider issues of culture, race, belonging and self-image.”
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