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Artist Statement |
Download print version (PDF, 22K) Through photography and representation I investigate the possibilities for contemporary families to construct gender, sexual and class identities beyond the postindustrial traditions of the nuclear family. For eight years I have placed my gay and straight-parented homes at the center of my inquiries into the familial gaze and modern representation of family in visual culture. My parents are the product of the post 1960s sexual, feminist and gay movements and the 80’s AIDS epidemic - a web of cultural vantage points that have informed personal and political notions of sexual identity, family and community. This multiplicity of subjective locations informs my process of research and image-making. My work challenges the portraiture and documentary cannon and family photographic practices and traditions with a visual critique drawn from contested theories of gender, identity and class. Six years ago I began photographing families parented by gay men who had been a part of Boston's South End community when I was being raised there by my gay father. Many of these couples have moved to suburban Boston communities, where they are now raising children. In the past five years this project has extended to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered-parented families, and a growing national community of adult children of gay parents. The photographs are made in the intimate space of homes, and during public LGBT gatherings at traditionally safe gay vacation destinations all over the country. These events are organized by parents and coalitions that represent the LGBT community. These Coalitions I work with and photograph include FamilyPride, GLAD, HRC, Families Like Mine and COLAGE. The coalitions serve the LGBT community with educational programming, family networking and social services, fundraising for lobby work and legal process, and building alliances with private and corporate funders. My interest in the photographic representation of gay family culture began specifically with same-sex parents raising children. The photographic project has extended to a curiosity about the reworking of not only gender but also ethnic, religious and class roles for family and community members. Unexpectedly, so far in this body of work, economic conditions such as class, more so than gender, have emerged as a defining family social structure. The representations of class in my work also reflects the increasingly commercialized space of LGBT family events. As LGBT families have become more visible, they have increasingly become the focus of targeted marketing as consumers. I'm interested in exploring how the burgeoning corporate sponsorship of LGBT community events influences and synergistically generates media images of certain kinds of gay families. I work with video, color and black & white films and I use medium-hand held cameras and a large View Camera. I digitally scan my negative then process and rework the images in Photoshop. The full size prints are 30”x40”. I print on clay treated rag papers using archival-pigmented inks. Please see CV for works published. Amber Davis, April 2005
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