Living On A Dream: A Marriage Tale
1998
Gelatin Silver Prints
24 x 20", 20 x1 6", 14 x 11", 10 x 8"
Series of 30 deconstructed photographs made by J.W. Clarkson, father of the author in the years from 1943 to 1965.
The book in which this work appears is a Memoir by Patt Blue,
published by The University Press Of Mississippi in 1998
From the Publisher:
"Patt Blue, an award-winning photographer whose work has focused on troubled families, takes this fearless look at her own. In Living On A Dream: A Marriage Tale, she shows the human inclination to grasp at illusions despite the trouncings that are endured again and again.
Combining stunning photographs with family interviews and personal revelations, this renowned photographer has crafted a family album portraying a nightmare, that is comic, human, tragic, honest and poignant. Blue's family memories are linked to heavy questions.
To understand the contorted relationship of her mother and father, she has written a book that directs a searing light on dark and often absurd secrets in a marriage built on obsession, betrayal, and acquiescence. Her up-close study of the twisted marriage brings Blue the triumph of understanding herself.
"Over a period of ten years," she says, "I have traveled to our many family homes, photographing, retrieving memories, and writing down my thoughts." She and her mother "hacked our way back through the thicket of the past." It is a history that Blue says "has driven my work in ways that I am only now fully recognizing."