the process of remembering: a photoblog by andrew huth

“Us” Show Artist Statement

The last post was announcing the poster and details of my upcoming “Us” gallery show.  Today I want to share another image from the show along with an artist statement I wrote for the show.  The statement attempts to express the meaning behind the title of the show as well as my vision for it.  It also explains one of the reasons why I fell in love with and continue to work behind the lens.  Over the past few days many of you have shown such warmth and encouragement to me via your personal emails, Facebook, and by leaving me comments here and also on my Flickr site that I have been smiling ear to ear for a few days even though I have been a bit stressed.  Thanks everyone.  Below is my artist statement for “Us.”  I know it is a full single page in length, but I hope you will, as you are able, take some time to read it because it does express what has been stirring in my heart while making plans for this show.

“Us”

As the title of this show suggests, this series of images is ultimately about “us”.  By that I mean the common everyday person, the sort of people most of us do not read, see, or hear about on television, the internet or on print media.  Although notables such as Bill Gates, Mother Teresa, and now Barack Obama are in the consciousness of nearly everyone on this planet (and rightfully so), the vast majority of the world’s population is filled with people of a different sort.  To most of the world the lives of these “others” seem to hold very little global or national importance or value.  Yet, these are the sort of people whom we come into contact with nearly every second of our lives.

Although the people in these pictures may live differently and in different places than where you do your living, we have much more in common with them than we may realize.  As it is with the 6 billion plus people on this earth, they, like you and me, love, hunger, feel pain and cause it, laugh, work, cry, play, dream of a good life and everything else imaginable in-between.  They are me, and perhaps they are people like you who are walking through this gallery.  They are all of us.  The lives of these people, and perhaps all of us, may at first glance seem mundane and fairly unimportant—ordinary (and in a way this is true).  However, the greater truth is that our ordinary lives hold great meaning and importance to those within our reach.  The everyday people whom we come into contact with affect us deeply and us them.  The communities we choose to live in influence our eating habits, our education, our careers, our friendships, and even our religious faiths or a lack thereof.  These are our families, our close friends and distant acquaintances, our colleagues, our neighbors and those we pass by without a single word of exchange.  Although we may not often give much thought about the value of the people who surround us daily they nonetheless will shape who we are as individuals and who we are as a community.

This realization was one of the major reasons I found both joy and salvation in picking up a camera in the first place.  I desire to connect deeply with the people that enter my life.  However, as it is with nearly everything in our lives, the world often moves too quickly for such intimate connections to easily spark and burn.  Thankfully, many of us have found ways and committed ourselves to living more engaged.  As for me, by taking the time to deliberately frame the world around me inside the viewfinder of a camera I am learning to value the things and people in that box more intensely and with intention.  The camera is not the only way I experience my life and those around me, but it is a very important part.  Many of my images are about the process of remembering a life being lived.

Ultimately, this show is about the celebration of that bond of the ordinary which ties the vast majority of the peoples of this world together.  None of us may be newsworthy, but our value to each other cannot be measured or overstated.  My hope for this show is that in thoughtfully considering the ordinary lives of those in these frames, whom you do not know, you will be encouraged to live among those around you with love, grace, and compassion.

Andrew Huth