Carrie Mae Weems inspired series

    I was most inspired by Carrie Mae Weems art. Her Table Series told stories that most people would not think really happened behind doors. What I found most interesting is how many different “scenarios” she showed in that one small part of a room. Each photo from the series showed a different story and an entirely different mood/set of emotions. Although the photos were obviously still, it felt like you could actually see what they were doing as if it was a video.

 “To collect photographs is to collect the world”

In taking these photos we do not realize how much of value they become when the experience just becomes a memory. 

“Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it.”

Photographs are evidence that things really happen, and I think they are a great way to reminisce.

“how life emanates from the small space we occupy in the world”

The Table Series is a great example of how life really lights up a room even if it is a small space that we occupy. 

    For my series, I decided to do something similar but with a twist. Instead of having each photo in the series be based on a different scenario, I decided to make the series all connected where you are kind of forced to see them in order to understand what is happening. In my first photo, you can see that the table/room is almost dead, and nothing is happening besides the book sitting on the table. Then I come into the next picture, although I am reading, there is nothing really fun happening and I look almost bored. I am doing my own thing until my mother comes into the next picture where my mood instantly changes. I am no longer by myself and bored, slowly but surely the room starts to come alive. In the next portrait, my sister comes into the frame where the three of us are all laughing and catching up on our day. The last photo of the series is us walking away from the table. The separation is supposed to show how we all come together at the table and then leave to go back to our individual lives. 

            Once everyone starts to do their own thing, it is hard to spend time with one another and the series helps show how I look forward to those moments where we are all together before taking off. Family time is really important to me, especially since I have a younger sister and although we might all be busy, the best times are when we are all together. This goes for the rest of my family, but they were not home at the time I did the series. J