2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pageWe Wanted a Matriarchy
Keeley Morgan
Friday, March 20 - 9:30AM to 10:00AM
Atlanta 1
We Wanted a Matriarchy explores themes of intimacy, age, and home through the photographic investigation of the maternal relationships between my grandmother, mother, and myself. The images I create are amalgamations of personal narrative, site history, and model cooperation - engaging photography as a performative medium capable of restaging memory.
I am interested in blurring the line between staged narrative and documentation in order to illuminate the complexity of interpersonal relationships. I direct my models every action: where to be; what to wear; how to position their bodies; what facial expression they should have. It's a slow process, one that allows time for play and reminiscence, and is slowed more by the medium of film. While I carefully meter and adjust to find the right frame, my subjects often have time to sink in and connect with me. They naturally engage in a personal intimacy that becomes inherent to the process. Film implies tactility and unpredictability which provides an opportunity to connect to the images themselves and the narrative I am constructing. The images are something that I must treat kindly and take care of, like the family and friends that I'm documenting. While the images are highly specific to my personal experience, they are evidence of the universality of family and the complicated emotions therein.
speaker
Keely Morgan
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