Edge Dwellers / Edge Dwellings
A man stands before us, his black-and-white beard blending seamlessly into the thick tail fur of the wolf skin that rests upon his head. The animal eyes of the headdress are closed in contrast to his intense stare back at us. Both of his hands are ringed with silver jewelry and resting upon his cane as he stands outdoors in what vaguely looks like the beach behind him. The light is soft and natural, the tail-end of the day.
This photograph is one of many portraits in the series titled, Edge Dwellers. The name is derived from many different “edges”. There is the literal edge of the location: the Southern California coast is the edge of the country, the edge of the state, the edge of the city, the edge of land where the vastness of the sea takes over. There is also the figurative edge of the subjects: whether by choice or circumstance the community portrayed here lives outside of the norms of our society. A band of travelers and squatters, some are more transient while others are decades-long fixtures in their community. They have their own rules and routines, sources of comfort and pain. Some of them may be “houseless” but in most instances they have found some sense of home here.
I live in Los Angeles and walk along these beaches and bluffs almost daily. These individuals and their extraordinary habitats are engrained in my regular routine. As I walk and visit, we discuss everything from the petty dramas of everyday existence to the profound mysteries of the cosmos. In some cases, these interactions have turned into artistic collaboration. I have chosen to make work within this community as a way to bear witness, not just to them but to myself as well. As I choose to slow down and see the other just as they are, I too feel seen. We together are in every photograph.
Using a large format view camera, I not only need permission but engagement. The process is greatly slowed down, giving the subject and I time to play and to consider our intent. The consistent but vague background hints at this coastal location but does not distract from the focus on the individual. As you view the series as a whole, you get a sense of the larger community.
In the photographs of the dwellings, the subject and I work together on the same side of the camera to craft their belongings as a sculpture, arranged just as they like to present them. I kept the frame in portrait orientation as way to communicate that these are not landscapes or still lifes but indeed a continuation of the portrait series, an extension of their personhood.
My intent with this work is not to objectively portray any one group of people but to share my own personal experience of artistic play and to ask the question “What happens when we slow down and just be with the other?” In the past I have used photography as preservation of memory, but in this case there seems to be an evolution of that impulse to freeze a moment in time. By being fully with another, the experience itself becomes the reward. And the resulting photograph is just my souvenir.
More reading: Conversation with Jon Feinstein at Humble Arts Foundation