September 1, 2010: My Beatles

After two years since initially starting the project, "My Beatles" will be on display next thursday, September 9th at the EM Gallery (inside Krankies) in Winston-Salem, NC. My artist's statement for the show best expresses how connected I am to these photographs. I hope to see you guys there!

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I want my photographs to tell stories. And I want stories that come from moments of life, like a still from an old movie. Movement and pain and the simple joys of being alive are frozen in time. Only a glance is needed to read the lines between people and find the story.

My love of photography stems from other loves: that certain slant of light, the look of a vintage scarf draped across a girl’s shoulders, a song lyric that rattles around in my head until it takes on a life of its own.

The My Beatles series grew out of those loves—especially the last one. It began as a way to keep my creative energy moving into new places. I focused on interpreting the lyrics of one song at a time through imagery in the style that I love. The more I created, the more I wanted to create. As the series grew, photos that started by playing on a single lyric began connecting with moments in my own life—some big, some small. I was able to pay tribute to and work through those moments of joy and pain and in the process create something that exists on its own.

The Beatles have always been a part of my life. As a young child, I listened to my mother singing along to their songs throughout the house. The lives being lived in those songs now mirror events in my adult life. And because there is no shortage of Beatles songs to work with, I hope to keep connecting lyrics with my life and the people in it — some who’ve gone and some who remain — for years to come.

-Heather Evans Smith

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