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October 6, 2008 |
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Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
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Reviewed by Sarah Coleman |
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It’s often assumed that to make great images, photographers need to travel to an unfamiliar place. But staying at home and making soulful, artistic images of family members requires its own kind of adventurousness. The truth isn’t always pretty, and displaying your own family’s truth can make for high stakes indeed.  © Jessica Todd Harper / courtesy of Damiani Books
In Jessica Todd Harper’s Interior Exposures, family life is illuminated, both literally and metaphorically. In order to make her images, this rising young photographer has positioned various family members in front of windows, letting the natural light play on their features. The strong lighting, along with the images’ stillness and composure, makes many of these photographs seem like contemporary Vermeer paintings.  © Jessica Todd Harper / courtesy of Damiani Books
Like Vermeer, too, Todd Harper positions her subjects in ways that subtly reveal their inner psychologies. The images aren’t quite documentary photographs, but neither are they completely staged. Instead, Todd Harper says, she creates “little narratives about life using my family and friends as characters to illustrate certain realities of experience.” Parents cradle their children protectively; spouses share private smiles. Sisters regard each other with that mixture of love and competitiveness that sisters everywhere will recognize.  © Jessica Todd Harper / courtesy of Damiani Books
Some of the most intense images in the book are self-portraits of Todd Harper with her husband Christopher, who’s clearly comfortable with his role as a male muse. Regarding each other over the breakfast table, or sharing slices of clementine at the sink, these two seem pleasantly surprised by the good fortune that’s brought them to each other. In some of these portraits, surprise gives way to looks of naked lust, and refreshingly, Todd Harper is often the one doing the staring. These images have a nice feminist twist, staking a bold claim for equal opportunity sexualizing.  © Jessica Todd Harper / courtesy of Damiani Books
A different kind of tension inflects some of the other images. In a picture of herself with Christopher and his parents, Todd Harper positions herself standing up as the other three sit and seem to appraise her. This clever visual metaphor brings the awkwardness and formality of meeting one’s in-laws into sharp relief, and the image is full of witty details, from the pristine, virginal bunch of flowers on the coffee table to the fact that Christopher’s father – the patriarch – is sitting in a director’s chair.  © Jessica Todd Harper / courtesy of Damiani Books
Because her family is affluent and WASP-y, and because she directs her subjects to pose a certain way, it seems natural to compare Todd Harper’s work to that of Tina Barney, who also documents well-to-do family members. But Todd Harper’s images are a little more raw, and more inviting, than Barney’s. She’s also more of a risk-taker, putting herself front and center of her meditation on family. And although her family is privileged, the feelings of intense love and trust she captures cross all social boundaries, and are easy to identify with. Luckily, the wealthy don’t have a monopoly on familial fondness.  © Jessica Todd Harper / courtesy of Damiani Books
This ability to recreate archetypal, familiar moments in family life is Todd Harper’s great strength. Not every image is a winner: some group shots seem tossed-off, and a few portraits of reclining women are repetitive. But at her best, capturing intense moments of intimacy between family members and rendering them in beautifully balanced compositions, Todd Harper is clearly a very talented photographer. An adventurous one, too.
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