At Table

This ongoing series shares aspects of the human condition that collide and converge in a shared, familiar place – the table.

The tables of my youth were compact, plastic, and single-serve - meant to be folded, put away, then quickly reassembled in time for dinner with primetime television. We had a leaf to for holiday feasts, but these were rare occasions in our smalltown home, where a single working mom and her only child alternated among frozen dinners, stews and spaghetti. The ongoing photographic series ‘At Table’ arose from a desire to add further family to these tables, and has continued thanks to an equally fierce drive to cultivate relationships across cultures and borders, as often as possible with others who don’t necessarily look or talk like me. The result is hundreds of still photographs that document the in-between, when ordinary moments come alive through gestures and expressions, food and drink. In locations scattered throughout North America, Europe and Asia, I have used my lens to navigate from a place that is local in depth but global in breadth. As an active participant within this messy contingency of silverware, bottles and placemats, I have forged 'tablescapes' with friends and former strangers, creating a family album that defies traditional definition.

2020 was to be a productive year, with travels to old tables in new places and series completion in sight. Instead, the work went on hiatus and reemerged within geographies opening back up to bridge our shared social distance. All images shared in this collection have been made since the pandemic in different cities, states or countries. Each stands testimony to the resilience of human togetherness and serves as a unique site of physical connection in an increasingly polarized world. ‘At Table’ also continues to offer catalyst for conversation within my work as an artist educator and founder of the food justice coalition Desert Kitchen. The pre-pandemic work has been widely exhibited in group and solo exhibitions, but I am now seeking publication and opportunities to complete the series through focused, purposeful visits to the Global South, where the project can connect and reunite with friends, family and likeminded food justice organizations. Thus, rather than wrapping up, the longterm project forges ahead in its quest to reveal aspects of the human condition that collide and converge in a shared, familiar place – the table.