Kendall Pavan came into the Darkroom with a shoe box of antique glass negatives that she and a friend found abandoned. My favorite print from these negatives is this oddity of a respectably dressed man draped in snakes. My grandfathers had no love of snakes. In fact in upstate New York there was a bounty on rattle snakes and when my father was a child he had a favorite aunt who would give him the rattles of the snakes she killed. The man in this photo is apparently not afraid of snakes. He seems to think they are cool. Was he a herptologist or just a guy who was cutting the grass who found a bunch of snakes? We will never know.
In an oddly similar vein Kendall has been photographing her friends on Black and White film with a 4x5 large format camera, much as they would have 100 years ago. These photos are of twenty somethings who are room mates, being posed as truly old school family portraits were. Kendall sees her friends living as room mates for long periods of time and becoming non nuclear "families" of their own. While looking hipsterish in dress they have old timey expressions and very straight posture. She is showing her work with fellow photographers Nicolas Ferreira and David Simione this this week at the Hope Artiste Village.
Hope Artiste Village
Floating Art Project
1005 Main St
Pawtucket RI
