From Loring Knoblauch’s review of Lindsay Morris’ exhibition for Collector Daily:
If you walk around Lindsay Morris’ show and you don’t happen to know the backstory, it would be easy to conclude that her pictures are simply easy going summer pleasures. They’re images from camp – girls on forest hikes, walking through meadows of wildflowers, scrambling on a climbing wall, and getting dressed up for improvised fashion shows – and they’re full of the held hands and supportive groups we have come to expect from such youthful bonding experiences. I imagine that many of the people that visit this show will breeze in and out and never realize that something else is actually going on, because the nuances are so subtle.
The reality of Morris’ photographs is that nearly all of the girls in her pictures are actually boys (at least anatomically), and the camp is a special place where kids with “nonconforming gender identity” can gather and be free of the criticisms and discrimination they might normally experience. While same-sex marriage now has the approval of the nation, being a teen or tween and realizing you might be in the wrong body is likely still a source of plenty of personal uncertainty and social anxiety. So this annual camp is a kind of safe haven, where the children and their families can relax and feel empowered to be who they are (and thus the title, “You Are You”).
Browse the exhibition “You Are You” at ClampArt
Browse all of Lindsay Morris’ work at ClampArt