Some of my work on the photographic practices of transnational families is on view at the “Visualising the Home” exhibition organised by non-profit group Carlisle Photo.
The exhibition explores the topic of ‘home’ in the modern world as seen by art photographers.
As Cumbria Live has reported, “Patricia Prieto-Blanco, a Spanish
photographer living in Northern Ireland, explores what it is to be part of a family of mixed nationality”. Below you will find my artist statement along with some views of my work in the exhibition space.
The successful submissions come from the UK, the USA, Spain, Germany, Israel, Italy and the Netherlands. Emerging, mid-career and established photographers are represented in the exhibition. The exhibition will be open to the public free of charge from Monday June 26 to Friday July 21. The open viewing night, on July 13 is from 5.30pm to 7.30 pm.
Artist Statement
By being collectively involved in particular experiences – directly or indirectly – we learn to call certain pictures family photographs. Some of them are considered as semi-private and thus end up hanging on physical and virtual walls, while some other are considered more private and are thus stored in analogue or digital folders. In analogue times, only a few of them used to travel by being sent to relatives and friends, thereby extending our homes beyond the four walls (Rose, 2003: 9-15). Digital photography, and more specifically camera-phone photography, has extended our home horizons extensively.
This series places Spanish-Irish families at the centre in order to reflect about the concept of home in relation to migration, transient living and mediated presence. Distance pushes transnational families to form “families of choice” (Weston, 1997) thereby reinterpreting kinship, friendship and the very concept of family (Beck-Gernsheim, 1998). The images they share shape human presence and absences. Home is embedded in them and travels with them. This series evidences that photographs are both images and artefacts. There are keyrings, photo-collages, calendars, mugs and frames. There is even a bag full of printed digital photographs whose owner always carries her, perhaps as an attempt to define her own identity beyond that of a foreigner.
The Stereoscopic Eye 