Somehow Form a Family (2007-2008):
Somehow Form a Family contains photographs and a video from a family road trip I took by myself,that I began in the summer of 2007 and completed in the winter of 2008. I set out to not only do all the things that normal families do: the Grand Canyon, amusement parks, and roadside attractions, but to find the place where my father grew up, in Dumas, Texas, and the first church he ever preached in at the tender age of 16, all the while headed west to California. I had set out on this trip to understand the two halves of my own history: the history of my photographic forefathers, the great adventurers who lit out for the mountains and highways, and established the long tradition of photographic exploration of the American West and to locate the history of my biological father’s childhood in Texas.
As the trip comes to an end, so does the video. They both end in the same way: a return home to my mother.
The photographs and the video are paired with a series of family portraits. These pictures examine the construction of family through the construction of the family portrait. In my own life, I do not know half of my family, including many half brothers and sisters. The last time I saw my father, I was 8 months old, which is to say that I have never actually seen him.
As a consequence, strangers take on a new meaning: the average stranger might be related to me. We could be family. I approached strangers at the mall and asked if they would pose in a family portrait with me. The final product is a singular document, purchased from the portrait studio. In continuing this project I am narrating a new life for myself, and building a family album that is simultaneously possible and impossible.
For my installation, I wanted to form a family from the various styles of art I had been working in: from the portraits to the straight photographs to my narrative, homesick vacation movie.
New Family #5, 2007
Cul-de-sac TN (Mother), 2007
Arden Place Sunset (where I grew up in TN), 2008
Dumas Bike Riders, 2007
Surprised Couple with Green Grass and White Teeth (Dumas, TX), 2007
Dumas Cowboy, 2007
Two Boys at the Edge of the Grand Canyon, 2007
Smiling Couple, 2007
Young Girl on a Rock (Mulholland Drive, CA), 2007
Shangri-LA, 2007
Between Us (still), 2008
Between Us (still), 2008
Between Us (still), 2008
Between Us (still), 2008
Between Us (still), 2008
Between Us (still), 2008
Burton Hills Sunset (Where my mom and I moved and where my mom lives now), 2008
Still Lives (my mom's living room), 2008
Ruby Cloud and the Beckers After Church, 2008
Sanctuary, Nashville TN, 2008
Blue Waves (mother near the shrubs), 2007
Elise, Sylvan Park, 2008
Between Us (still), 2008
Between Us (still), 2008
Between Us (still), 2008
New Family #3, 2007
New Family (installation), 2007-2008
Somehow Form a Family: MFA Thesis Exhibition (installation image), 2008
Somehow Form a Family: MFA Thesis Exhibition (installation image), 2008