The Family State: Exhibition Reception September 24, 2009

The Family Stage: Photographs by Janet Delaney, Todd Hido, and Cecil McDonald Jr.
September 24 – November 15, 2009

Opening reception Thursday, September 24, 5–8 p.m.

The Family Stage approaches domestic life from a multitude of photographic and human perspectives. The show immerses the viewer in the complexities of family dynamics, the simplicities of humdrum objects, and the sometimes turbulent, often sublime rhythms of home. Janet Delaney’s “Housebound” series grew from her need to create some stillness within the whirlwind of motherhood. The work captures what she terms “simple scenarios of home and family.” Her evocative still lifes are presented as single images, diptychs, and triptychs. She writes that they have become “personal icons for the complexities of growing up and growing old.” Delaney lives in Berkeley, CA, where she teaches photography at the University of California. Todd Hido’s “Ohio” series of 20 Instamatic photographs presents a compelling narrative that hovers between fact and fiction. For Hido, the cheap Instamatic camera produces images that are “more fictional but more true” than imagery taken with conventional cameras. The viewer is challenged by the ambiguity and by the increasingly disturbing content of the pictures. Hido was born in Ohio and is a celebrated contemporary landscape photographer living and working in Oakland, CA. He teaches part-time at CCA, San Francisco and is represented by the Stephen Wirtz Gallery, SF. “Domestic Observations and Occurrences” by Cecil McDonald Jr. represents “an extended look at the moments and relationships that occur within the domestic space.” He describes his autobiographical photographs as “tableau vivants” that “re-examine the […] everyday moment.” Unlike Delaney, McDonald eschews the singular object or person for performative retellings of activities ranging from the mundane to the dramatic. lives in Chicago and is represented by the Catherine Edelman Gallery. A survey of family “snapshot” albums will show how the presentation and preservation of family photographs has evolved, from early 20th century bound volumes to today’s digital frame. THE FAMILY STAGE is organized by Rupert Jenkins, Roddy MacInnes, and Charlie Roderick.