Label Text
In 2011, Laurel Nakadate began photographing strangers — friends of friends, Facebook contacts, and curious members of online communities — meeting them at night under dark skies. Using long exposure, available natural light, and a single flashlight, she developed a visual style that captures the charged strangeness of a first encounter. As the project evolved, Nakadate turned to internet DNA testing, which revealed distant living relatives; research into online communities dedicated to descendants of noted historical figures further expanded her subject pool to hundreds of people who shared her DNA. Each was invited to meet in a rural location, wearing whatever they wished, and photographed as soon after introduction as possible, with only necessary conversation exchanged. Titled “Relations”, the full series expands notions of social networking by tracing patterns of human connection. Does this seemingly random gathering of people, disparate in age, race, and background, constitute a family? Do they amount to a self-portrait of the artist herself?
DimensionsFrame: 31 × 46 × 1 1/2 in. (78.7 × 116.8 × 3.8 cm)
Sheet: 30 × 45 in. (76.2 × 114.3 cm)
Sheet: 30 × 45 in. (76.2 × 114.3 cm)
Accession Number 2016.3
Classificationsphotograph
Edition2/3
Portfolio/Seriesfrom the "Relations" series
ProvenanceLeslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York; Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 2016]
Collections
