"I am starting to up the ante and take on something more personal, a taboo that pierces me with shame, secrecy and discomfort: family estrangement. (Yikes! even writing it down is tough to do)." Laura Turbow
"I am starting to up the ante and take on something more personal, a taboo that pierces me with shame, secrecy and discomfort: family estrangement. (Yikes! even writing it down is tough to do)." Laura Turbow
LAURA TURBOW
Laura Turbow has been a professional photographer for more than 25 years. She started as a newspaper photojournalist, working for publications including the Oakland Tribune and the Des Moines Register. She has run her own studio, Laura Turbow Photography, for two decades. Through an offshoot of her studio, a business called Still Life Stories, she helps people share their life stories through personal objects.
ltphoto.com
Part # 2: LABA PROJECT
winter 2023
Family Estrangement Begins At Home
photography on canvas and metal; plain pine box; image of grandma's needlepoint from the entryway of my parents' home in Iowa; my parents' words, transcribed from assorted phone calls; my mother's tablecloth; fiber; shattered glass; yahrzeit candle wax; kriah ribbon; cashmere; artist’s blood
"When we speak something once thought unspeakable, when we admit a devastating humiliation, we shrink the immensity of our shame to human scale, and the truth told finds its reflection in the eyes of the one who hears it and makes the choice to accept us as we are ... In the moment, the burden lifts, the window opens, and we are free," Letty Cottin Pogrebin, in her book Shanda.
Four images express a personal story of family estrangement. In chronological order, left to right, they are titled: "Shalom Bite," “Burning Down the House,” “Transformation” and "Equanimity in Motion."
“Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground,” Genesis 4.
Part #1: Explore
Spring 2023
We are 1/3 through the year-long LABA fellowship. Tell me what you are thinking so far about the theme of TABOO and your current project idea inspired by it.
In the beginning of this process, I thought I'd dabble in taboos such as talking about money, writing down God’s name, death, cremation, and maybe throw some shrimp on top. They were taboos I could view from a distance. Easy enough.
But I am starting to up the ante and take on something more personal, a taboo that pierces me with shame, secrecy and discomfort: family estrangement. (Yikes! even writing it down is tough to do). While I see the difficult challenge ahead for dissecting this taboo, I am leaning into the healing of this taboo.
Big reveal: art itself can be taboo for me, as I throw judgments of “wasting time” between myself and a canvas during hours when I might otherwise be working with clients. I am beginning to enjoy this bold feeling of breaking a taboo every time I walk into my studio. It's not the focus of my piece, but it colors everything I do.
PROJECT IDEA:
private - secret - taboo- discomfort - shame - closed - open - private - secret - taboo - discomfort - shame - closed
what we don't say has power. name it to tame it.
I have been diving into conversations with people of different generations to learn how taboos change over time. I am struck by the younger generation's bold moves to break taboos, finding tolerance in people and things that are different from themselves. Taboos are cultural constructs, and as this is locally based research, I am loving where I live more and more.
Family estrangement crosses state lines.
I have been pushing myself to learn more about breaking and broken families. Dani Shapiro's Inheritance and her podcast "Family Secrets" have been a guiding light for me in the last few weeks as well as "All There Is" with Anderson Cooper. I have taken all of these and thought about creating works of art that put painful family secrets (brokenness) gently on the table with intentions to find healing.
IMAGE: For a recently divorced friend who moved into a new home, I was inspired to create this — “Shalom Bayit” by Laura Turbow
