This collection of images, entitled “Disclosure,” examines the continual wave of experience that contributes to the development of identity. The moments that constitute our life experience are not as ephemeral as we tend to believe. We relive these moments over and over, altering the details over time, filling in the gaps with the understanding gained with age. At any given moment, we are entangled in the constant process of change, reexamining ideals once held as absolutes and adopting new behaviors based on new understandings. In these images, the figures are in the midst of a process, of reaching toward something greater, of being caught between revealing and concealing. The use of pattern serves two functions. One is to reference a specifically female history which is reflected in textile patterns, visual codes that we associate with specific ideals, lifestyles, and time periods. Secondly, patterns function based on the concept of repetition ad infinitum. They serve to expand the photographic space beyond the borders of the image and the space of the studio. In the same way, my own experiences have been interpreted to reflect a more universal female and human experience.
Emily Franklin currently teaches photography at Northern Illinois University.
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