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New photography exhibit at Fort Worth Modern to examine the meaning of home

Pabio November 13, 2024

What does home mean to you? Through the talented eyes of 13 female and non-binary documentary photographers, ideas of family, community and home add up to something beautiful and mundane, poignant and powerful.

Opening November 17 House newspapers seems perfectly timely for a moment in history in which we reconsider the American tapestry of life. Perhaps surprisingly, the exhibition has been four years in the making.

“The idea of community and family intrigued us both and we are also very interested in the true value of photography and how it can relate to the idea of family,” explains Clare Milliken, the assistant curator of Modern who shot Home with chief curator Andrea Karnes.

Debbie Grossman captured Farm Security Administration photographer Russell Lee during the Depression era... — Debbie Grossman took Farm Security Administration photographer Russell Lee’s Depression-era images of Pie Town and used Photoshop to create images such as “Jessie Evans-Whinery, homesteader, with wife Edith Evans-Whinery and Their Baby” from 2009-10, which will be on display at Fort Worth Modern’s “Diaries of Home” exhibition.(Debbie Grossman)

The photographers on the duo’s shortlist for the exhibition still included Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, and Laurie Simmons, but the curators broadened their focus to younger talents such as Jess T. Dugan and Arlene Mejorado. Perhaps the most significant addition is the Letitia Huckaby, based in Fort Worth. His photographs of the descendants of the formerly enslaved couple Charley and Kate Thorp (who played a crucial role in the founding of AddRan Male and Female College, now known as TCU), are transformed into silhouette portraits designed to capture history through art.

Collectively, approximately 140 works (including videos and slides) will be presented to spark dialogue among a cross-section of the American population, allowing artist and viewer to draw on what we have in common rather than on our differences.

Milliken says, “We put them together in a way that allows people to think about their own place within their own family and community, but also to consider how those pieces fit together to create a piece of a larger puzzle.” I’m optimistic that it allows people to see things with compassion, and I hope that our visitors leave this exhibit with positive thoughts about who makes up the United States.

Details: Diaries of Home will be on display at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth from November 17 to February 2, 2025. themodern.org.