Artist Statement

Confrontation

This project was inspired by the work of Sebastião Salgado. He explains how people are often portrayed as victims of their situations. In the process:

“…people tend to be denuded of their larger, more complicated humanity, including their culture and the internal resources that allow for self-determination.”

Of his work, the photos that truly engaged me are those with direct confrontation. By engaging their viewer, these subjects are showing who they are, as they are. They may live in different, or even less situations than we do, but they are, if not equal, but stronger than us. This human strength truly amazes me, and is something I wanted to work with in my final project.

At first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. It was only after I shot a couple of rolls that it popped out to me, and I remembered my reaction to Salgado’s work. My strongest images were ones when the subject had their eyes connected with the viewer, showcasing an emotional response of confrontation.

I chose to incorporate my two lives at Stonehill College to help me investigate confrontation. Working for three years at the Boys & Girls Club of Brockton, I used the kids I work with in addition to the people I have grown to know very well while at school. These two aspects show two sides of me, both that are equally important, and my relationship with the people in both areas will change forever on May 18^th, 2008.

I found that kids were much easier to work with. They didn’t have the vanity of adults, and are not afraid to show who they really are. It is a time before we put that false pretense up, blocking others from seeing the real us.

My subjects all present themselves as they truly are. They are proud of who they have become and look not to shield that away.

Enjoy.

Rachel McCoullough