by Kelley Lannigan
Inspired by my photo presented as "Conversations With Myself" and shown at the Becoming: The Feminist Image exhibition at PhotoSC in Columbia, SC from 21 Jun - 14 Jul 2024
The last busload of visitors departs.
Corridors empty of employees
anxious to be home after a long day at work.
In their wake, a hush, soft as lamb's breath
settles on the gallery.
This is the hour I like best.
Installing an art exhibit is an exacting task.
The public sees only the finished product,
the snow curated, prepared and methodically hung.
How little they know of the often frenetic behind-the-scenes
choreography needed to achieve the finale.
But I love this work.
From concept, to research and development,
the jury-process to cull the most illuminating examples,
the Yes! that is the curator's triumph when
all the moving parts of her vision come together.
How much easier the process, if there were three of me!
But I have never been one to delegate -- my grandmother's legacy.
Her maxim "If you want something done right, you do it yourself,"
became my mantra, my modus operanid.
I joke, half-serious, that it will be my epitaph.
Here, on these walls, I am surrounded by women,
the work of their hands brought to light
by the powerful lens that is the feminine photographc voice.
Images of beauty, strength and innocence,
of industry, fantasy, self-reflection and action
blend in a chorus across the ages;
a song old but new again each day,
still be composed, ever-evolving.
Here the mythological and the surreal hold hands
with the grist and grit of the ordinary
and sometimes extraordinary.
From the vulnerability of an open flower
to the weary, dignified resolve of the exhausted boxer
preparing to face the last round.
Fluidity and transformation.
Dismantling stigma. Challenging dogma.
Moth to the flame. Phoenix from ashes.
Endings. Beginnings. Change.
This is the work of their hands, of mine;
my homage to my sisters in vision, in spirit.
Let the camera speak. They who have eyes, let them see!
Let our works praise us in the gates.
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