A Place at My Table

Growing up, familial bonds and a sense of community were prominent aspects of my life. My childhood was filled with Sunday family dinners, gathered around a modest but noisy table with three generations worth of ideas. Sometimes things were much too loud for my liking, but the food was always good. Over the past few years, that table has grown mostly quiet. Empty chairs fill the spaces where someone once bubbled over with laughter as they sipped on their freshly opened can of Coke. Some of those empty spaces make the air feel like lead, so thick that it somehow dims the room. Today I dread the sound of silence.

 After experiencing a significant amount of loss over the past few years, this photo series was born out of my need to document the people that are still present in my life. A Place at My Table serves to document the complex relationships that I have with family and those who are important to me as I grapple with my identity and the blows to the foundation of what was once familiar to me.  By utilizing the symbol of the Table as a point of connection in each image, this series features a staged compositions that include Self-Portraits alongside family members, as well as one photoset that includes my partner, and one addressing Loss directly through the use of an empty chair. Although each set of photos differ slightly in style, the eclectic nature of each photoset showcases the reality of what I am trying to capture. Everything and everyone is different, and nothing is exactly perfect. That is simply the way that it is