I set up different assignments – one was to photograph their families. Then they photographed the community, whatever they thought that was. In preparation, we made a list of things that they liked and didn’t like about where they lived, and we talked about it. I’d help them select the aspects on the list they wanted to depict, which helped them to think about how to photograph their ideas. That was probably the most difficult assignment.
I chose a different way of telling a story that’s perhaps more subtle and involves looking at a place from different points of view. I was also looking at how people in the fourteen places use the camera differently – to understand the way they saw things rather than constructing a single or double narrative.
That’s the beautiful thing about photography – it can give you control over your environment.
I would start editing as soon as I got back home. I’d have to spend long enough so that I could get into their way of seeing, as much as I could. It was just fascinating, it was wonderful, I loved it. They were letting me see what they were seeing.
– Wendy Ewald
Each day, L’Oeil de la Photographie will present you a series by a photographer.
EXHIBITION
This place
From February 12 to June 5th, 2016
Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Pkwy
Brooklyn, NY 11238
United States
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org
http://www.this-place.org
http://wendyewald.com
