Artist Statement
My practice is cathartic it is a form of therapy for me. A catch and release method. I utilize my camera, archives, objects, and identity to cultivate the work. It is multi-faceted with the layering of narratives, emotions, and experiences and all intersect with one another. My beginning started with photography but has developed into being a critical image-maker. By understanding the power, position, and gestures that we make as photographers and image-makers. Using this tool to create work can and has provoked and expressed forms of violence and exploitation within our communities. This is what led me to my recent work for the past 5 years of embracing the archives. I was taught that spiritually bringing the archives out on display shows acknowledgement and then in return, you are letting your loved ones become alive again. I follow this same practice within my work. I have been examining, listening, and protecting the Black family archives within my work. I am continuing the practice of centering Blackness, eliminating--confronting the white gaze in photography, and creating a space for my community. There is a form of collaboration and respiration within these series. I find the sources and cultivation not purely by my own but by family upbringings, Black and Indigenous authors, womanists, musicians, community, and kin alike. The intentions are to continue to grow as an artist--to learn and unlearn--to continue contributing to the research and expressions of those before me and I pray that it follows.
bean reece.
