Deconstructing the Domestic

Irina Rozovsky elevates photographs she takes in her day-to-day life to the status of precious objects by pairing images with old frames found in antique stores and on eBay. Her Miracle Center series is, she explains, an “invitation to play with time and visual space.” The images are transformed by the frame, influenced by its color, shape, ornamentation, and the number of images it holds. She is particularly drawn to “travel frames,” compact frames that were intended to be carried during travel, thus keeping the tender feeling of home or another person close to heart.

Susan Worsham stages poignant scenes in suburban Richmond, Virginia, and the bucolic landscape surrounding her childhood neighborhood that suggest interweaving narratives of loss, grief, healing, and renewal. Here, life and death are caught in an unsettling yet beautiful interplay as soft fox fur stoles drape over vividly blooming azalea bushes in an explosion of rich colors and textures. This work, which is part of her series exploring the loss of her brother to suicide, infuses what she describes as “the sweetness of childhood memory” with a sense of melancholy.

Sarah Hobbs examines human behavior by constructing physical representations of emotions, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive activities. Multiplied objects clutter the sterile, carefully arranged rooms and characterize neuroses and mental disorders. She explains, “our worlds are filtered through our experiences and the makeup of our inner selves. . . . Whether a setting makes you feel comfortable or uncomfortable depends on you and what you bring to it.” Though there is space for an occupant in the scenes, one never appears. Here the viewer becomes the unseen individual in front of the butterfly-covered mirror, denying what the reflection may reveal.

Tina Barney is renowned for her decades-long documentation of family dynamics among America's and Europe’s social elite. Working with color film and a large-format camera, Barney blends the spontaneity of a family snapshot with the compositional and narrative complexity of a tableau. Her frames are meticulously constructed to reveal stories of intimacy and connection but also the tensions and dissatisfactions that exist among all families regardless of economic status, betraying the notion that wealth and happiness go hand in hand. Marina’s Room is a key example of Barney’s directorial and narrative approach to photography. Here she presents a quiet and caring moment between a daughter and her father who are seemingly unaware of the camera. A narrative of doting affection is implied, yet the trappings of material comfort and affluence in the girl’s formal dress and overstuffed bedroom suggest a feeling of claustrophobia and rigidity as two people play the roles in which they’ve been cast by an elevated social hierarchy.

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.