Vanitas is a type of Dutch still life popular in the 1500’s that uses exotic food to express the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. These paintings represented foods that were expensive and hard to find, which contrasts the majority of food that is consumed in the United States in the 21st century. Processed, outlandishly colored foods seem appetizing now, instead of the citrus fruits, fresh vegetables and meats that only the rich could afford during the 16th century. Now, everyone can consume these “delicacies” like fruit roll ups and rainbow colored cake; toxic foods which should repulse us, instead of enticing us to eat them.
For as long as I can remember, the saying “Johnson County Brown” has been used to describe the prescribed beige color that each home in my neighborhood is painted. Johnson County, Kansas is a suburb of the Greater Kansas City Metro Area. It is the place that I have called home for the past twenty-two years, with the exception of my time away for college. The suburban neighborhoods of Johnson County are so similar that my house, the exterior and interior, is in fact identical to the majority of homes just down the street from one another. Not only do the homes in my neighborhood look similar to one another, this style of living extends to many communities in Johnson County.
Johnson County has a population of 544,179 and it is interesting that this many people, myself included, would want to live in a home that looks just like their neighbors’, and abide by the rules and regulations of a Homeowners Association. The cookie cutter feel to these houses is something that I have questioned my entire life, which is why I think documenting them has become an important part of understanding this lifestyle.
Wellington Park is a family neighborhood with a large pool, two tennis courts, walking trails, a playground, clubhouse, and one of the Blue Valley elementary schools. The neighborhood was built in the late 1990s, and the majority of current residents are the original homeowners from that time. The average resident is middle-aged with adult children. You do not see kids playing basketball outside or kickball in the cul-de-sac, like a stereotypical suburban neighborhood. This void of people in the frame of each photograph leaves the viewer with only the monotonous architecture in which to search for clues of life. The photos represent a conformation of society that extends into the color of each home.
Green Ridge, Missouri is the place where my uncle was born, raised, and where he still lives 60 years later. The land that he lives on has been passed down from his grandparents, and is cluttered with Black Angus cattle, sweet corn crops in the summer and countless buildings that house tractors and other farm equipment, which is so important to his daily life. Each building holds significance to him or his siblings. He, his father and his brothers built this one in the photograph during their childhood.
Although all that is left is the stilts holding the roof up, it still provides shelter for cattle during the rain or shade during a hot day. He cannot bring himself to tear it down, as each building provides an important memory to his life and his history in Green Ridge, Missouri.
These photos were taken with a large format film camera.
Genealogy is a complex, confusing topic that can be consuming of time, energy and unknown history that is hard to figure out. Taking a look at my own ancestry, I decided not to figure out the “family tree” and compare the older generations similarities to the younger generations. Three children, my grandmother and her brother and sister, stand together in a photograph in the early 1900’s, and in a similar position, I sit with my brother and sister in the late 1990’s. These pairings allow for a look into the future of the life of my ancestors, which is an unusual comparison. Not only are these photographs vastly different in the process that they are made, the evolution of time is very apparent. Ranging from the Van Dyke process to large format film, and instant film to digital, this family history has been preserved for hundreds of years through a wide variety of mediums. Additionally, the passing of time is visible through the change of styles. Clothing, hair, and facial expressions in these photographs give the viewer a sense of the time period, location and a deeper look into the lifestyle of my lineage.
Records such as birth certificates, military ID’s and medical history also allude to a deeper understanding of their life, like fatalities that could have been avoided, specifically appendicitis, which is easily curable in my generation. With the majority of my grandmother’s generation gone, it makes it more difficult to identify the figures in the photographs, their history and important moments, like marriage, birth, death and life in general. Some of the older photographs have names hand written on the backside, but others do not. This leads to the detective work of piecing together an extensive lineage and questions the genealogy and origins of everyone in the photos. Although my motive is not to recreate a family tree, I still am curious about their connections to myself, which is why the comparisons of generations through images and records are more valuable to the universal idea of an evolution of a family.
cyanotype, gum bichromate, Van Dyke, salt prints
Chemex tray, solid oak.