Out of the Picture series​ (20"X28", Durachrome prints, 2009)

The Out of the Picture series pairs photographs I stage with commercial images, graphics and advertising from the 1950s. I use photo manipulation software to lighten the skin tone of the female character and add white tabs reminiscent of paper dolls. Like most of my recent work, this series is concerned with re-imaging mid-20th Century domestic life. Images of the perfect family, perfect wife, and perfect life dominated advertising and television in the 1950’s, a period critical to the visual sensibilities of the post-war generation. Fifty years after the fact, this imagery evokes nostalgia for seemingly less complex times, but the visuals are, of course, loaded with messages about expected behaviors and attitudes.