The Caregivers-
The Caregivers addresses the emotional and physical labor of parenthood and romantic partnership in my community during a global pandemic.
Using an 8x10 camera, the wet plate collodion process (ambrotypes) and the sidewalk in front of my home studio, I make portraits in public space of families and lovers.
Over a series of multiple sessions, I collaborate my subjects to tell intimate stories of how they nurture, support and protect each other. Through gesture, expression, the placement of bodies and the manipulation of perspective, I depict a wide range of queer and heteronormative families who live within walking distance of my front stoop. I use these portraits as a means to explorer caregiving not as a given role for a women but with the context of queer and feminist thought that sees this labor as a radical act.
The work weaves together a narrative of world-building, using public space and the politics of family and intimacy during a period of self-isolation.