Real Pictures: Tales of a Badass Grandma
By (Author) Peggy Nolan
Contributions by Bonnie Clearwater
Contributions by Suzanne Opton
Daylight Books
Daylight Books
20th November 2018
United States
General
Non Fiction
Photography: portraits and self-portraiture
Parenting: advice and issues
Intergenerational relationships: advice and issues
Sociology: family and relationships
Hardback
130
Width 254mm, Height 203mm
"Real Pictures" describes how a very large family and their many partners and offspring get through the day. There are babies being pushed out and food being cooked and dreamers staring at the ceiling. There are empty beds in good light. This is how Peggy Nolan sees the folks she loves and sometimes not even like so much. She has been looking at them through her view finder since most of them were small and has followed them around mosh pits and hangouts and fights with their boyfriends and girlfriends. Nolan was driven to witness all of it and leave behind a record of what it looked and felt like to be them.
"There is a tenderness and a sensitivity in these pictures of family that cannot be faked. Nolan is not embedded with her subjects, she is entwined. As such, the pictures not only show she has an eye, but also a heart." - Chris Wiley, The New Yorker Nolan seamlessly blends the everyday nature of her subjects with beautiful stylistic techniques, - Musee Magazine, October 29, 2018 Also featured by: Photo District News Humble Arts Foundation
Got married raised seven kids lived in the projects stayed home cooked and cleaned dreamed of making art started photographing shoplifted film learned to print shot a lot of pictures stole more film moved out of the projects went back to college shot more film studied hard got a job shot more pictures got divorced got pierced up worked harder graduated from college stole more film got some grants got some attention not really enough shot more film made more and more pictures got a better job went back to college graduated from graduate school kids grew moved out of the house shot more film got more grants got more attention still not enough calmed down stopped stealing film slowed down some started thinking more shot better pictures calmed down slowed down still thinking still making pictures. Bonnie Clearwater is an American writer and art historian. She is the director and chief curator of Nova Southeastern University's Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale. Suzanne Opton is the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship. Her soldier portraits, icons of the aftermath of the current wars, have been presented as billboards in eight American cities, and have sparked a passionate debate about issues of art and soldiering.