Portfolio Category - LCEA 2013

BETH is an extended visual and psychological portrait of partnership. In the nearly three years since Beth and I have cohabited, we have become something of a primary family to each other, and watched as our respective birth and adoptive families have either disintegrated or disappeared. (My parents divorced after 43 years of marriage and her parents have not spoken to her for over three years in apparent disapproval of her recent divorce.) This has put an unusual weight to our partnership, and I have been trying to document its complicated arc of loss and sadness in our lives. While BETH is composed of fairly traditional photographic documents, there are also some unique surprises in terms of how the images were made. I have used broken printers, fax, and copy machines to create and complicate the possibilities for how each image looks and feels. I am hopeful that somewhere in these visual 'translations' of our relationship, the viewer will feel the profundity of caring we share for each other, in times of equal parts love, sadness, caring, and laughter.