(a project in progress)
L A M E N T
a song of sorrow for those not heard
Touching Silence
The photographs in LAMENT are intended as an elegy—a quiet offering.
“Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.”
In the accompanying images, Roberts’ photographs seamlessly merge the past with the present. The history and memory conveyed through these emblematic images evoke human nature’s ability to inflict harm and perpetuate injustice. It would be foolish to relegate those realties to the past, to draw a contrast between history and a more just present. History is with us still. As Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It isn’t even past.”
LAMENT merges from a desire to show and name this history as it continues to unfold. Markers of the past exist all around us, sometimes hidden but always detectable. Roberts has wondered if she is the right person to document these markers. She sees her efforts as a contribution to a legacy of truth-seeking that began long before she started this project and that will continue long after. Her hope is that these photographs will advance ongoing efforts to make a sometimes seemingly ineffable history tangible. She has seen how such efforts create opportunities for change—for compassion, action, and justice.
For these photographs, she is utilizing nineteenth-century technology: an 8″ x 10″ view camera and a Darlot brass barrel lens from the Civil War era. With this equipment, there are no shutter speeds or f-stops, only a lens cap that allows light to make an exposure when it is removed and replaced. There is also a good deal of chance involved. Roberts’ use of nineteenth-century technology invokes the temporal merging that I seek to capture in my work—the overlays of past and present, the existence of history in the visible world that we encounter every day.
“Our hope is by telling the history of the African American experience in this country we expose the narratives that have allowed us as country to tolerate suffering and injustice of people of color. ”
Roberts’ explorations of history, memory, and family are philosophical inquiries into life, death, and basic human rights. “Through these photographs, I hope that we might perceive our shared past with a desire for healing. We must be willing to acknowledge the silent stories encoded in our surroundings—and willing to work to ensure that we do not repeat them.”
A portion of the proceeds from this project will be donated to the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Slave Dwelling Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing resources to preserve African American slave dwellings. I will donate photographs from this series to museum and library collections to further the dialogue and visual context around this history.
I am grateful to the Guggenheim Foundation for their support of this work.