Fine Art Photography Daily

Matthew Avignone: Stranger Than Family

I thought sharing the work of Matthew Avignone would be an appropriate follow up to yesterday’s Mother’s Day Exhibition.  Last year Matthew submitted an image to the Father’s Day Exhibition with the explanation that he was the oldest of five children of different races adopted by his parents and that he was working of a series about his unique family titled Stranger Than Family. It’s a body of work where the images transcend the subject matter, but stay rooted in the celebration of the ordinary within an extraordinary family.

The Avignones
Matthew recently opened an exhibition of Stranger Than Family at the David Weinberg Photography Gallery in Chicago that runs through May 24th. 
Installation shot of Stranger Than Family

Matthew holds a BA in Photography from Columbia College  in Chicago, was nominated for the 2012 Baum Award for Emerging American Photographer, took 2nd runner up in the Photography Book Now Competition presented by Blurb and was exhibited in the Pingyao Photography Festival in Pingyao, China. His first artist monograph An Unfinished Body currently resides in the permanent collections of the George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, NY and the International Center of Photography, New York, NY. The book, An Unfinished Body, is a handmade signature sewn book consisting of 30 family documents and 50 original photographs.

Stranger Than Family
For many, when hearing the word ‘family’ brings other words to mind: mom, dad, brothers, sisters, love, and birth. But what if you were flown into your mother and father’s arms not by a stork but by a Boeing 747. My siblings and I came from foster mothers and lonely orphanages to parents and a little home in Illinois, some of us healthy and some with life-inhibiting special needs. Once we might have all been strangers, but with time, love, and perseverance we are fortunate to call ourselves one family.

Posts on Lenscratch may not be reproduced without the permission of the Lenscratch staff and the photographer.


NEXT | >
< | PREV

Recommended