Yes, dinner tomorrow at home

Through photography, I am exploring my role within my family both immediate and distant. Since moving to New York, I have been able to reconnect with relatives living in the greater New York area. By capturing portraits and spatial shots of the family, I was able to express my influx of emotions while getting to know this family — from being a distant relative to bystander to granddaughter. The shots are both spontaneous and preplanned. My way of creating work between the two families varied due to the time it took in forming our relationship. The experiences that took place with the Long Island family enhanced my comfortability to experiment with lighting with my Toronto family. The series consists of natural light, on camera flash, and a single A1 Profoto flash. The film director, Wong Kar-Wai, was at the forefront of my mind during this project. His way of visually conceptualizing time, memories, and displacement influenced my composition and those themes were central to my idea of family. My use of 35 and 120 film equated to my presence and time spent on creating the picture. As I dove into this topic with my own inferences and perception of family, I expected new excavations to surface that challenged my initial beliefs and evolved the meaning entirely.