WASHINGTON — The photographic work of Kristin Dillon will be on view through Tuesday, Sept. 4, at the Gibbs Library, 40 Old Union Road.
Dillon is a 29-year-old photographer from Minnesota.
After taking a permanent leave of absence from college, Dillon traveled to a small town in Maine to work on a farm in Whitefield, where, a decade later, she still lives with her two children and her partner. She has carried a camera with her since she was a child and is running a commercial photography business, but considers her primary skill sets to be talking to strangers and pulling over to the side of the road to get a better look at things.
Her ongoing series “Closest Kin” is the result of her daily wanderings with her family in her community. Dillon describes her work and passion: “After years of wanting to photograph abnormalities and novelties that I don’t understand, I’m just starting to like the idea of making photographs about what I already know. My people, my kin, by blood or by choice, is my singular focal point. It’s what I have always poured my energy and time into. But I’ve been making pictures of my community almost every day for most of my life, and never saw those images as significant. That changed when I unexpectedly found myself creating a family. The physical transition of becoming a mother was much swifter than the emotional and psychological impact I was expecting. I was thrown off kilter; I wondered if I would be able to keep making the time and space for relentless documentation. I felt uncomfortable and awkward in my most mundane moments. This turned out to be a gift – this strange and novel reality of full-time-child-rearing brought a fresh perspective and let me clearly see the beauty and oddities and value in my own daily wanderings.
“Closest Kin” is equal parts uneasiness and settling in, appreciation and confusion, intuition and ignorance. But more at its core, this ongoing project is a way of making art out of what would have otherwise been another passing moment, and a way to better understand what I love about my kids, my partner, and my chosen family.”
Library hours are 4-7 p.m. Monday; 9 a.m. to noon and 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday; 3-6 p.m. Thursday; 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday; and 2-5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, call 845-2663.
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