Over the last ten years, American photographer Kelli Connell (born 1974) has explored the lives and relationship of writer Charis Wilson (American, 1914–2009) and photographer Edward Weston (American, 1886–1958). Using Wilson’s writings and Weston’s photographs as a framework, Connell traveled to various locations where the couple lived, created art, and shared their lives together. Together with her partner at the time, Betsy Odom (born 1980), Connell retraced the couple’s journeys through the American West, mirroring their explorations from nearly eighty years earlier to produce their landmark book California and the West (1940). Throughout this process, Connell collaboratively created photographs of Odom, challenging traditional power dynamics typically associated with photography.
This exhibition at The High Museum in Atlanta brings together Connell’s recent photographs alongside Weston’s classic figure studies and landscapes created between 1934 and 1945. Within the exhibition, the voices of Connell and Wilson intertwine, encouraging visitors to reflect on the complexities of individual narratives that can be oversimplified or misremembered.
Additionally, the exhibition features text excerpts from the companion monograph Pictures for Charis by Kelli Connell, which is set to be published by Aperture and the Center for Creative Photography in 2024.
