What They Know

If you find your faith in your parents’ god don’t be so quick to point out the flaws in it. Pictures, Benjamin Francis Leftwhich This photographic series of still lifes and environmental portraits in an exploration of flaws - a questioning of the critical and the reverential nature of the familiar and familial. I am quick to point out flaws in the traditions within my family. As I grow, my eyes are shaped by new knowledge and experiences causing me to notice the imperfections in my home. My home is imperfect because of the flaws within myself and my family. Through our brokenness we affect and damage the traditions, customs and beliefs we hold dear. My family’s imperfections do not make them any less important to me, rather they allow me to find beauty and reverence in fallible things. Through this series, I am returning to the towns and homes my parents grew up in and photographing my family and environment as somewhat of an outsider. Even though I spent much of my childhood in these places, my new knowledge and experiences cause me to see them with new eyes. This exploration has me looking and searching, with my camera as a mediator between my ever-changing self and the family I am apart of but often feel distant from. It has left me nostalgic for lifestyles and memories I have not experienced yet desire and romanticize in my mind. Through the acts of exploration and photographing, I am recognizing and reconciling with the brokenness within my life.