59th Street Stories: The Ways of the Folk
Photography as an art making process has enabled me to assert my presence in a culture in which I feel largely invisible. I use photography to create a voice from within the silence of the images, and hope that the images reveal the essence of the lives of my subjects, but also something about the experiences, people, and places that I value. I select cast-off materials to create my cameras, and with them construct an imagery that interprets the humanity of a cast off people.
The images in this collection are portraits of people taken outside of their homes or businesses using a large format (8×10″) pinhole camera constructed from a Styrofoam ice chest. Pinhole photography for me represents a deliberate return to an obsolete technology in an effort to get back to the origins of the relationships between photographer and subject. The process of setting up takes time, and my curious-looking gear provokes curiosity, and sometimes laughter, and engenders conversation allowing time for a relationship wherein stories from my subjects begin to unfold.
1. Ms. Janie in the yard with her rifle, Smithfield Community, Birmingham, Alabama
2. House in the Smithfield Community, Birmingham, Alabama
3. Caddie Girl of Fairfield, Alabama
4. Miles College Students at their picnic, Birmingham, Alabama
5. Katherine Paisley and Angelia Brewer of the D&W Store, Winonah-Ishkooda Community, Birmingham, Alabama
6. Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Boglin, Quilter, Interurban Heights Section, Fairfield, Alabama
7. Pinhole Photography students, Wenonah Elementary, Birmingham, Alabama
8. Yard Shrine, Winonah-Ishkooda Community, Birmingham, Alabama
9. Old 69th Street Grocery with painted tree in view
10. Old Door, Smithfield Community, Birmingham, Alabama
11. Honeymoon Barbershop, North Birmingham
12. Thomas Grocery, Midfield, Alabama