Investigative journalist Kathy Dobie at the end of our assignment. So blessed to be partnered for the last two weeks with an equally down for whatever, ready for everything spirit. Here’s to being the Ethel to your Lucy, again. Look for our work about a special young woman out soon in @californiasunday #womenworkingwithwomen thank you @jackiecbates
Happy Valentine’s Day to all the fierce womxn warriors of life out there, giving themselves more love than any external force ever could. • Raye, outtake from untitled series, 2013. In 2013, I put an ad in 3 California newspapers that read “Young woman photographer in search of women over 65 willing to be captured in unclad portrait.” For weeks, women from Southern California responded. This series was one of a few experiments I did during the year I spent focusing predominately on seniors, intimacy and relationships thanks to @magnumfoundation. I lunched with each respondent, at which time I explained my purpose. I was 19 and talked to them about how I felt objectified. My young body was a locus of strife, so I wanted to create a dialogue with bodies that people on a grand scale, sadly, find challenging to behold. I had situations where women fought with their husbands to participate. Sandra, from Long Beach, told her husband, age 75, “It is my body. Who cares if your friends see it?” I met with a psychologist-hypnotist who wanted to just chat in her office first; I sat in the client’s chair, yet I was the one interviewing her. The ad also prompted a slew of calls from shady guys who wanted to meet me in motels in Palmdale and refused to put their alleged “wife” on the phone. A woman from a religious foundation called just to ask me if I am a faithful individual; I told her yes and that my God is a woman and an artist. She was satisfied with my response and told me “whatever works.” This experience was a reminder that this work isn’t about photography, but is really about whether you can create a safe space between yourself and those you feel into. I have not placed an ad since, because that intuitive connection comes from a face-to-face interaction with the people I photograph; yet, this process was unique, and I’ll always remember it. When I met Raye (shown above), I noticed an enlarged image of her when she won a state bikini contest when she was 19. She said, “That’s when I was a babe, like you.” I told her that I don’t even know what a babe is. In her poem, Recreation, Audre Lorde writes, “my body writes into your flesh the poem you make of me.”
Chad and Sarah at the ranch for developmentally disabled adults where they reside; from a documentation of lovers with developmental disabilities. #valentinesday
Valentine’s Day is soon
Jeanie and Will. From “Senior Love Triangle,” a long-term photo documentary about Jeanie, Will, and Adina. “Senior Love Triangle,” the book, will be available in Fall 2019, published by Kehrer Verlag @kehrerverlag, design by @bonniebriant. Film out this year too. More on both endeavors soon.
Moments from my phone
Hannalina, age 17, and Beaux, age 16. For @nytmag #love #lgbtqia
Ada doing the Sabbath prayer over candles at the nursing home, 2013. Ada is blind, but can sense when the candles are in front of her. Found this image in a folder while searching for another image from this time period. #friday
“Whiskey’s supposed to drown the memory. I’ve gone from one to one too many. And the thing that really gets me. Is how your memory drowns the whiskey.” #strangers
Drea, age 6, plays with the her Barbies outside the apartment where she resides with her parents, while her mom is in jail for 60 days for violating the conditions of her house arrest for DUI. Drea is particularly sad that her mom isn’t there to do her hair.
Alberta, age 14, after a home visit from child protective services.
Bianca in 2009, Bianca now. It is ok to love the people you photograph. The question is: how can you not love them? They give you everything. #10years #tbt
Tom, age 81, is the night door greeter at Walmart. “I see some strange things here at night, like people with Mohawks,” he tells me. #walmart #shotoniphone
Lilly kissing her mom’s stomach where her soon to be born baby sister, Daisy, is, with Mary Jane, her other sister (left). I was there the day Lilly was born 6 years ago #sisters
American Psychological Association has finally confirmed that traditional (hegemonic) masculinity can be a threat to mental and physical health. #remoteness #shotoniphone
I was asked to contribute to a new @everydayeverywhere feed dedicated to my great state of California @everyday.california. Thanks to @colleenkcummins for putting this together, please follow along. • Leann, age 22, stands with roller skates at the ranch for developmentally disabled adults where she resides in Santa Clarita, CA. #california #shotoniphone
Bianca and champagne glass. Happy New Year to all. #newyear
Betting on “Caribou Club” or “Stormy Liberal.” #gambling #shotoniphone
Father-child Christmas visits at the Everglades Reentry (Correctional) Center, 2015 #christmas
People feeling unresolved grief during the Holidays, what’s up