Friday, December 9, 2016

BELINDA FUENTES REVIEWS KEILY ANDERSON-STALEY


            Off The Grid is personal to Keliy Anderson-Staley in that she has experience with the subject matter she is documenting and begins with her own family. This series follows families in Maine who live without the normal American necessities such as electricity, plumbing and technology. Further, she explores how homes can represent the families living in them and act as self-portraits. The series consists of various rooms of the families’ homes such as living areas, their environment such as their land; their daily lives such as their occupations but also the families themselves. With Finn in his Bedroom, Harmony, Maine, this image shows how off the grid homes can appear the same as “normal” American homes with his bedroom looking like any other teenager’s room. Displaying their lives includes intimate parts of their home including their outhouses such as Bush Oil Sign on Outhouse, Guilford, Maine, A-Frame Outhouse, Unity, Maine, Tom's Outhouse Interior, Guilford, Maine and Landry's Outhouse, Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, contributing to the reality of being off the grid. Anderson-Staley enjoys the contrast that occurs with the children of these families who grew up with a certain lifestyle but also long to be apart of the common society. Katrina in the Kitchen, Sebec, Maine illustrates a young lady in her interesting environment yet there is a sense of longing as she stares in the distance, perhaps daydreaming of another life, a “normal” life. Commonly see in her photographs are ice, gardens and wood. Despite the intimate connection, she stays neutral on subjects of the environment and our society.



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