Opposite #1
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Description: There is one moment that affected what I choose to point my camera at today. It was when I was in my early 20’s and living in Oakland, California. I was shopping in a department store when I looked around to notice that all the African American women in the store had had their naturally curly hair straightened and all the Caucasian women, including myself, had had their naturally straight hair permanently curled. I wondered why this was. Was this out of curiosity or dissatisfaction? Do we have the urge to know what life would be like if we where different from who we are, are we looking for a different reaction or do we think that the grass will be greener on the other side of the fence? With this work I decided to seek out my physical and mental antithesis. I am a small, white woman and I often feel that I have more male traits than female traits. I sought out my opposite in a tall, dark skinned, male who feels more feminine than masculine Throughout the history of photography photographers have often attempted to capture things that do not exist or things whose existence we questions because they can’t be explained.

Opposite #2
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Opposite #3
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Opposite #4
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Opposite #5
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Opposite #6
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Opposite #7
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Opposite #8
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Opposite #9
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Opposite #10
2007
Nelson Gold Toned Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10

Bellocq/Dodgeson #8
2007
Lenticular Photograph
5 x 7

Description: Throughout the history of photography there has constantly been the existences of simultaneous invention. There has almost always been two or more people working with a similar idea or concept at the same time. Recently I noticed a parallel in the photographic works of Charles Dodgeson (also know as his pen name Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland) and those of E.J. Bellocq. Though there was a gap of over 30 years and a continent between these two men there are striking similarities in the poses displayed by their models. While Dodgeson primarily photographed in the late 1800’s in England, Bellocq worked in the early 1900’s in New Orleans. Bellocq photographed prostitutes in a brothel, a subject considered taboo and shocking at that time, and Dodgeson made many photographs of young girls, a subject that is a taboo in our current time.

Bellocq/Dodgeson #3
2007
Lenticular Photograph
5 x 7

Description: Throughout the history of photography there has constantly been the existences of simultaneous invention. There has almost always been two or more people working with a similar idea or concept at the same time. Recently I noticed a parallel in the photographic works of Charles Dodgeson (also know as his pen name Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland) and those of E.J. Bellocq. Though there was a gap of over 30 years and a continent between these two men there are striking similarities in the poses displayed by their models. While Dodgeson primarily photographed in the late 1800’s in England, Bellocq worked in the early 1900’s in New Orleans. Bellocq photographed prostitutes in a brothel, a subject considered taboo and shocking at that time, and Dodgeson made many photographs of young girls, a subject that is a taboo in our current time.