between the birthdays

1983—2002

These photographs and personal texts are part of a larger series on family interactions that followed the portraits series. When I began raising my own children, I considered our family rituals, practices, and ways of relating. I was interested in the unconscious unfolding of behaviors, biases, and stereotypes perpetuated in the ways we related to one another. As a result, the photographs and texts focus on our family dynamic and relationships that stand as a microcosm of the dominant behaviors of the culture surrounding us. Preconceived gender roles, expectations, and resistance to the status quo play a part in scenarios as filtered through my feminist perspective and are evident in numerous examples.

This unique personal documentary project began with the 1983 premature birth of my son in my brother’s bedroom on Long Island, New York more than 1200 miles from our home in Minneapolis. That separation of home and extended family was a constant contrast to the lives lived by family members in previous generations. Our contemporary families were separated by thousands of miles and spread between the Midwest, the extreme south, and the Northeastern U.S. Our time together was usually condensed, rotating households and states, during a few annual visits. Those geographic distances and generational differences contributed to the dynamics of our relationships.