Left: The Web site of photographer Ava Johnson. Right: An untitled image from her series entitled “Good. Grief.” © Ava Johnson

Photographer, instructor, performer, and Center for Documentary Studies Public Information Coordinator, Ava Johnson visited our class in WEEK 5. I had the opportunity to meet Ava the previous Saturday when I attended the Ethics in Photography panel discussion at the White Lecture Hall (post here). Ava was one of three CDS instructors who facilitated the afternoon workshop with Duke students and a couple of CDS students.

Ava’s energy and passion for photography are evident as soon as you meet her. Just listening to her express her work and share her personal life experiences added a whole new dimension to seeing her work. That’s one of the beautiful things about getting to talk with artists while they share their work. Her enthusiasm was infectious and I couldn’t help but be motivated to go make pictures.

She shared some of her portfolio projects with us including “South of the Border”, a series of images made with Diana and Holga cameras that focused on the details of decay and disrepair of the classic freeway tourist trap. She also shared an incredibly poignant and genius series called “Recreations”, whereby she presented diptychs with family photographs on the left and recent photographs of her on the right in the same places, in the same poses. This series was especially great for me because it offered an intimate look into her family life. My favorite project is entitled “Good. Grief.” Ava shared that this series of images came about in the aftermath of a devastating apartment fire. Faced with moving to an area unfamiliar to she and her partner, she used her camera to document a time in her life where she was unsettled, both physically and emotionally. These images convey an amazing awareness of time and place and an almost haunting familiarity. Being able to listen to her describe these series of events was quite emotional for me.

Ava’s work is here.
Ava blogs here.

This week’s homework:
Glenn Hinson, “Crafting Fictions, Telling Truths: Creative Collaboration in the Photography of Roland L. Freeman”
Raphael Samuel, “Perils of the Transcript”
As told to Pamela Grundy by John B. McLendon, Jr., “‘A Position of Respect:’ A Basketball Coach Who Resisted Segregation”
Clarissa Sligh, “The Plaintiff Speaks” from Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography

Also for homework, create an elevator pitch for our project.