Domestic (Betty and Toni)

Description

Using a 4 × 5 camera, simple lighting, and a traveling studio, Julie Moos photographs pairs of people whose relationships, though only defined in broad terms in the titles, are integral to the portraits. Made in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, Moos’s Domestic series pairs household employees with their employers, leaving the viewer to draw conclusions about who plays what role in the power dynamic. Moos prompts the viewer to scrutinize dress, body language, and bearing for clues and exposes the tendency to make assumptions based on age, race, gender, and appearance.