Our Objects

I have been shooting the objects of our lives in order to give more of a contexts to our story. I will be incorporating these into a slide show/book of 100 images that will tell our story. I should have it finished in time for the January residency.

10 narratives, 10 images each

My mentor and I have been spending a lot of time focusing on my motives for taking pictures. My first written assignment was to list 50 reasons for why I do it. They ranged from simply enjoying the feel of the camera in my hands to issues of self worth. With this list as my starting point, he asked me to write 10 narratives or concepts and illustrate them with 10 images each. This has forced me to orally articulate my narrative in order to be clearer in my visual representation. This has also helped me focus on the importance of sequence. Here is one of my stories.

Now that I am not working, my routines revolve around Annie’s. I tend to get lost in my own thoughts and lose track of time. If it weren’t for her schedule, I wouldn’t know what day it was.

Annie & Jaden

This month, I've concentrated on photographing the relationship between Annie and her best girl friend, Jaden. Because the were born a day apart, came from the same orphanage, and both have lesbian mothers, they seem to have a bond that goes beyond usual friendships. Despite the lack of common interests, they come together on a regular basis and find a middle ground that they can connect on.

new efforts

I've been playing around with some of my ideas and trying to decide which direction to take. The iPhone idea is fun to play with but not really the way to go. I've been laying the ground work for working with our lesbian couple friends but haven't set up any photo shoots. The one thing I have been doing is working with Annie and her friends and the three of us shooting each other. I'm happiest with those.

1st post

Although, I am in my second semester at Lesley/AIB, this is my first experience with a blog. It has been about a month since our last residency and I'm still gathering my thoughts on how best to proceed with my work this semester. After all the suggestions from faculty, fellow students, friends, family and my current mentor Marvin Heiferman, I have come up with a list of ideas that I will work from. I may choose some or all of these suggestions. This is my time to experiment and play with a variety of perspectives and methods to tell my family story. 


• let Jo and Annie use the camera to get their point of view
• only use the camera on my iphone to document our day to day stuff
• put our family story in context - photograph other middle aged lesbian couples w/ or w/o children
• photograph only the objects of our lives
• photograph our dogs
• explore Annie's world of pre-adolescence
• photograph Annie and her friend Jaden
(both from same orphanage in China, best friends but very different - girly girl vs. athlete
• focus on each of us as individuals and make a book of each
• try all of the above and make a book of each