Black
and
White and
Color
AN INTERVIEW WITH
PHOTOGRAPHER DIANA ADAMS
4.
Blood Strains
DRIFT:
You recently had a show in Fairfax, Virginia--a work in progress called
Blood Strains. I think, conceptually speaking, it is perhaps
your strongest and most original work. Here, you work with a variety
of genres--performance art and portrait photography. As I see it,
it is an opportunity for people of mixed ethnic heritages to act out
how they visually perceive these racial backgrounds in front of a
camera. A catharsis whereby the subjects act out or discover something
in themselves that was not really acknowledged before. For instance,
you have a triptych depicting a subject who is half German and half
Indian who visually acts out those cultural identities on two separate
side panels. Finally, that subject is depicted in a larger central
panel as the everyday person who acknowledges his/her assimilation
into culture at large by posing as an American with the tee-shirt
and a smile. Tell us more about this project.
ADAMS:
Since we've been talking about inspiration, I would like talk about
the way that project started as well. I have a friend who was half-Vietnamese
and half African American. One evening I kept noticing how part of
the time she looked very Oriental and part of the time she would look
very African depending on how her face was angled or how the light
was catching it, or how she was feeling. She would go in and out of
these different ways of appearing, so I couldn't help but be very
conscious of it.
A couple
of days later I asked if she would be interested in posing that way--some
pictures in each attitude. She said it had been her life-long dream!
She told me that I was the only person she would trust to try to do
it. So, she came over to the studio and brought her passport from
Vietnam--she was a little over two years when she arrived, and she
brought a little oriental doll, a lot clothes and props. She was every
imaginative, very creative. And we also did a white tee-shirt shot
just because she wanted to have cute picture in a white tee-shirt.
And that picture seemed to hold the two together quite nicely.
That's
how that happened. And the pictures were very strong. She acted both
parts out beautifully and I became very excited by the results. So,
we decided to pursue that theme of Vietnamese war orphans. That was
the way the project began. She knew quite a few orphans--in fact,
about nine who she contacted who were willing to come down from as
far as Vermont to participate in the project. We thought we would
have a round table discussion beforehand regarding their experiences
of coming over as war orphans, being of mixed race, and being raised
in America.
For me
it was huge solution to my problem of grieving over the Vietnam War
that never really ends for people who were upset by it. I thought
this would be a contribution I can make twenty years later which can
solve or alleviate some of that pain. I was so excited about it. However,
later we experienced a fundamental disagreement. Eventually, she felt
it would be a project more suited to someone like her--it might even
be her life's work involving a movie or other media all having to
do with the same subject. In other words, she wanted more control--it
would be solely her project. I was an older white woman, and not inside
her life history.
For
me it was huge solution to my problem of grieving over the Vietnam
War that never really ends for people who were upset by it.
DRIFT:
At this point, I assume you began to see the larger form and drama
of mixed races and not simply the dilemma of one group of people.
ADAMS:
Yes, but I had to respect her point of view only because of the history
of our country as a racist imperialist country that took slaves. And
is still in some sort of reparation state of things. And, also because
of the Vietnamese people who are also in a reparation state. So, actually,
given those political and historical aspects, I did not feel it was
my place to say no to her. Looking back at it, I think her position
was more superficially political then I thought then. Years
have gone by and she has not done any more with her project
DRIFT:
Is she one of the subjects in Blood Strains series?
ADAMS:
She is the first person in the series. We went through a month without
talking. I told her I respected her decision. Then again, luckily,
I found it possible to open that project up to lots of people of mixed
race and not just have the Vietnamese focus. And that's how that project
started. As I met people and had conversations about it, I gradually
ended up with what I have now which is a collection of thirteen different
people--36 images in all.
DRIFT:
Please give us some background on them.
ADAMS:
Many of the people I worked with, of course, had more than two races,
but we would choose the predominant ones. One woman had quite a few--she
chose to portray the Indian and Scottish sides. Later, I photographed
someone who is Scottish and Moroccan...a person who is Indian and
German...someone who is East Indian and Jamaican. And I have a woman
who is half American Indian and half Italian. I took pictures of twins
who are half Chinese and half Italian. There are other combinations.
DRIFT:
The woman whose mother was from Vietnam and whose father was from
the United States told you that the opportunity to act those heritages
out fulfilled a deep and long lasting emotional need. Did others react
to the cathartic aspect the same way the first subject did?
ADAMS:
To greater and lesser degrees. Women are much more expressive of that
than men on the whole. The guys generally came because a woman in
their life or I would ask them pose. And they came along, cooperated
and were subsequently amazed by how excited their families were by
the results. Sometimes family members would dig up costumes, clothes
and props. Initially, the guys would usually be asking "Why am I doing
this?" However, they would later love the pictures.
DRIFT:
Why do you think the women were less ambivalent about the project?
ADAMS:
Maybe it's because they can have babies, and most will go on to do
that. Perhaps, the woman is already thinking of how her baby will
be a mixture of this, that, and the other...
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