Gillian Laub was horrified by her familys support for Trump.
So she turned her camera into a mediator.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Still, she assumed that she and her relatives stood on common moral ground.
She continued to document them through deaths, weddings, and births.
They manage to feel both honest and staged, as if they were scenes from a provocative play.
In one, Laubs father tells her to stop with the F N Liberal hypocritical BS.
He quickly follows this with Luv U All.
Trying to navigate and grow into that as you carve your path is what I was subconsciously doing.
Now, making this book, I realized,Oh, that wasexactlywhat I was doing.
Family Mattersseems to exist simultaneously from the perspective of an insider and outsider.
Im curious if thats been your experience too.Ive definitely struggled with that.
I was wrestling with so many inner conflicts.
When I was younger, that manifested in depression.
It sounds like a cliche, but I think photography enabled me to process certain feelings.
But I was always so curious about the world.
Its about the exchange, the relationship to whom youre photographing.
Ive never been the punch in of photographer whos like a fly on the wall.
Thats not who I am.
I still have these Polaroids from when I was 6 years old.
I would take portraits and pose people.
It was immediately something I fell in love with.
I didnt realize it was something I could study and actually do until high school.
I took this class called On Creating, which was about the relationship between photo and text.
We had aDuane Michalsassignment that was a huge turning point for me.
I did my project on my father: I interviewed him and took pictures of him.
So you could say that I started really photographing my family when I was in high school.
At the very worst, I would have all these pictures, these documents from my family.
There wasnt a lot at stake for this as a project.
Maybe the meaning will reveal itself to me in the end.
But I didnt know if it was worthy of saying,This is my art.
I truly did not.
But I had to photograph it.
In 2017, the producers of Pop-Up Magazine called me.
I was hesitant, obviously.
I was like,Wow, this could be really cathartic.
This is an opportunity to create something out of this mess in my mind.So I did that.It was terrifying.
Thank you.It felt like there was this little support group forming.
I love your family.
That was incredibly powerful, because we just kind of put people in boxes.
That was when it dawned on me that this is a larger story.
It touched people in a way that I think was refreshing because it wasnt blaming or pointing fingers.
There wasnt toxicity; it wasnt about that.
It was about: How do we learn to live with this?
Im interested in your choice to include your text messages with your family in the book.
Some people were like, Do not include those they take away from the art of it.
Others were like, How can younotinclude them?
You cant describe that.
You have to show it.
That was how we communicated for five years.
You would never have that jot down of exchange if you were sitting across from each other.
Trump has neo-Nazi supporters, but so many Jews still support him.I know.
I thought about that a lot.
Everyone who can pay can be a member.
I lost sleep over that.
But you know, thats an ethical question, and my loyalty is to people.
Sometimes the work has to be sacrificed for the ethics of it.
When I saw his work including at hisretrospective I was in awe.
I loved how he used text, too, the conversations and the way he engaged his family.
Its funny because I interviewed her for something, and I showed her my family work.
She totally dismissed it.
She liked my other work a lot more.
She was like, Im so tired of tableau family work.
I see a through-line betweenFamily Mattersand your other work: conflict.
I do hope the work is somehow a way to build bridges.
Its a way to hear and see other points of view.
TheSouthern Rites exhibitiontravels through the country.
Its been in the whitest of white places, like Portland, Oregon.
Every time that exhibition is shown, its a reminder of how important these conversations are.
When I started making that work, white people were not having these conversations.
I was kind of screaming off the rooftops to white people, Look at what is going on!
And they were like, No, no, not here!
When Southern Rites came out, I sat down with all the main characters and showed them the film.
White students who were part of the last segregated prom messaged me on Facebook saying, Im so sorry.
People can change; theres room for growth.
That was the biggest stamp of approval, because they were all like, You were fair.
You did right by us.
I was like,Phew, I did my job okay.
Does that signal success for you?It does.
My husband would say youre not successful unless you piss somebody off, but thats not my goal.
I dont agree with that.
Did you recreate that?
Does it make it untrue?
It doesnt matter to me.
So my mom was on the floor that happened but I didnt have my camera with me.
I took out my iPhone.
It was such a perfect moment that encapsulated everything.
You couldnt make it up.
But then I had to recreate it.
I had the iPhone picture, but I needed to make it a photograph.
It was like,Oh my goodness.
Hes speaking to my mom.And she was saying to me, Listen with an open mind.
I trusted that I was going to do right by them and tell a true story.
There were a couple passages where I asked my sister, Is this going to hurt Mom and Dad?
And she was like, No, its the truth.
Bonnie, whos my parents closest friend, read many drafts.
I remember the night before she was coming over to read the final draft, I did not sleep.
She said, you’re able to do this; I give you the green light.
I wanted to film it.
I think it was good, because then she expected the worst.
It was a very, very intense and emotional couple hours.
We had one of the most open conversations weve ever had.
Do you think they understand you better now?Yes.
Its funny, my dad doesnt even love the pictures.
I think he likes my black-and-white work better.
But he told me he loves the book because its so honest.
Thats whats kind of amazing about my parents it wasnt about how good or bad they looked.
Their egos werent part of the equation.
They just respected that it was honest.
That, to me, is the biggest form of love.
How could you be so angry over someone?
Thats so sad for you.My sister was like, Youre a tortured soul.
She really looked at me like she pitied me.
And thats when you just have to laugh.
