Zoe Strauss (born 1970) is an American photographer, founder of the Philadelphia Art Project in 1995 with the aim of exhibiting art in non-traditionnal venues.
With the money she got for her 30th birthday she bought a camera and started working on her I-95 project.
For ten years she completely devoted herself to her project, giving up having a child, inviting strangers into the lives of her wife and her family, and continually working, editing, and writing on her blog.
“I-95 was an epic narrative about the beauty and struggle of everyday life, comprising 231 photographs adhered to the concrete support pillars under an elevated highway that runs through South Philadelphia, Interstate 95. The installation of photos went up once a year, from 1PM to 4PM, on the first Sunday in May. I worked on 95 for a decade, from 2000 to 2010.” Zoe Strauss
Interstate Highway 95 was built in Philadelphia from 1959 until 1979. Residents opposed the project because they thought that the highway would divide the city economically and racially.
Zoe Strauss' Themes
Strauss laid out distinct themes that ran through her installation to help her “get at everything”.
“The first aisle had a number of images about formation of self and was heavy on personal imagery.
The second aisle talked a lot about construction of self, with an emphasis on the construction and fluidity of gender.
The third aisle was desire, with an emphasis on addiction.
The fourth aisle was American identity.
The fifth aisle addressed getting by.
The sixth aisle addressed hope and pride and joy.”
Zoe Strauss
Zoe’s portraits are very powerful, often taken from very close. We can see that her subjects trust her, opening their vulnerability to her.
A lot of people refused to have their portrait taken but this wouldn’t discourage her. She just kept asking and eventually, the few who accepted were willing to share their intimate stories.
Like Robert Frank before her, Strauss was interested in national identity and the fabric of the American Dream.
In the picture above, Strauss juxtaposes an image of the American Dream – three beautiful white kids and the spectacular American landscape behind them, with the man toasting from the inside of the vehicle, the curtain on his arm, a few buildings in the reflection of the window, and his face in the dark.
She seems to invite us at looking beyond the facade, into the lives of the people left behind.
The portrait of Cynthia offers a strong contrast between her confident posture, her lovely dress, jewelry, and flower in her hair with the wasteland behind her suggesting that hope, pride and joy can be found anywhere.
“From the start I thought that exploring these specific motifs would allow me to get at how we live and how we create ourselves, particularly how we can circumvent unreasonable constraints. I wanted t to explore the strength in how we figure out our lives and the truth of how sometimes we can’t work it out.
And I wanted pride, resignation, exhaustion, beauty, ignorance, insight, desire, strength. I wanted everything. And I wanted everything existing concurrently. Sometimes on parallel planes, and sometimes within the same image, within the same moment.” Zoe Strauss
The Importance of Homage
“I don’t work in a vacuum, no artist does, and I look to always pay homage to works that have had a significant impact on my life… and by default, my work.
I am a huge William Eggleston fan. Man, I could look at his photos all day, every day. He is a quintessential American photographer, who’s impacted American photography from both sides of the camera… he changed the way many make photos and changed the way people look at America.
Red Ceiling has always been one of my favorite photos. Of all photos ever made.” –
Zoe Strauss
Strauss openly quotes other photographers. She wanted to bring the history of photography to the I-95 installations to offer her audience, who wasn’t always aware of art history, a bridge to pictorial tradition.
In 2006, she produced her first book, America. For this first publication, she studied Walker Evan’s 1938 book American Photographs and Robert Frank’s 1958 The Americans.
But unlike Frank who explored different social classes, racial division, and national emblems such as jukeboxes, American flags, cowboys, and automobiles, Strauss like Evans, focuses her attention on struggling people and dilapidated places.
Recurrent symbols in her photographs are tattoos and signage.
Homage Photography: Celebrating Your Inspirations
This week I invite you to choose a photograph/painting/scene of film… that had a significant impact on your life and create a photograph inspired by it.