"There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about." ~ Jean Rhys, Wild Sargasso Sea
“The Light Across the Border” is an on-going project I began in late 2018 as a Guggenheim Fellow. During the fellowship award period, I lived in Mexico for four and a half months. In reviewing the collection of images I had captured, I realized that the work was still developing and that I needed to return to Mexico. I was able to return for a second trip in 2023, adding significantly to the original corpus. I have now identified the principal photos that will serve as the foundation, and will return to Oaxaca to work on the project in December. The photographs will form the basis for a photo book and exhibition.
My previous series, “The Light Under the Door”, is about a woman who dreams of a larger life. Comfortable at home, she also yearns to experience the broader world. She wonders if she has time left in her life to reinvent herself. The working title of the project is The Light Across the Border. This new body of work examines some similar concerns in a distant place away from home. By visually exploring some of the same themes I have captured at home, I hope to uncover the connections between these two neighboring countries. I wondered how this approach would play out in Mexico, with its unique quality of light and environmental conditions.
As I wandered the streets of Oaxaca and the nearby countryside, I was drawn to the figures that inhabited this mysterious terrain. There is an intimacy in the city that enabled me to observe people in public spaces, capturing them as they moved between light and shadow within the picture frame. Shadows allow me to link concrete objects to imaginary ones. What I could not anticipate was the sublime quality of light during the twilight hours. During the upcoming trip, I would like to focus on adding more portraits, still lifes, and interior spaces to deepen the sense of what home might be like in this new place. While I work in a direct photographic mode, making pictures that appear to document what is front of my camera, I hope to create a dreamlike space that allows viewers to form their own narrative.
“The Light Across the Border” provides an opportunity to create a photograph narrative far away from home and away from my comfort zone.
