Common Place, Artist Statement
Common Place is an exploration of intentional community. Having been raised in a communal family myself, I have a natural interest in the lives and fates of communal families. My family’s communal structure failed when I was a teenager, and my first major body of photographs documented the closeness and support that remained between my family members after our fall from grace. With an unproven belief that communal living is healthier, safer, and more emotionally nourishing than the nuclear family on it’s own, I set out to meet other communal families with a more intentional structure- to explore our histories together through interviews and portraiture.
These photographs depict the time my mother and I spent with a group called Common Place- a now half-defunct commune originally made up of a group of families who wanted to live off the land and raise their children together. Presently, only a few of the original members remain. As we made portraits and told stories, it became clear that their community had fallen apart over the years as well. I was forced to shift my perspective- my fantasies of intentionality as utopia were squashed. It appeared that the intentionality and effort put in to keep the community thriving at Common Place actually made the unraveling all the more painful and hard to accept for its members.
I hope to continue this exploration into intentional community- to amass more portraits and stories with more groups. While capitalism seeks to isolate us, coming together as kin is a radical act.