Ann Ploeger, The Woman Who Was Alive There
Portraits by Ann Ploeger

April 7th – 30th, 2018
OPENING PARTY: Saturday, April 7th, 6-8pm

Luke’s Frame Shop (Albina)
4703 N. Albina Avenue
Portland, OR 97217
lukesframeshop.com
Mon – Sat, 10am – 6pm
*wheelchair accessible

There remains something that goes beyond the testimony to the photographer’s art, something that fills you with an unruly desire to know what her name was, the woman who was alive there, who is even now still real and will never consent wholly to be absorbed in art. -Walter Benjamin

I made these portraits of my community of women during the summer of 2017. I wanted to strip away the environment allowing these women to take center stage: the simple figure on a white background looking at me looking at you. Their gaze transports me to a place where I think about who I used to be and who I thought I would be. My selection from each sitting puts me at the forefront; shows the viewer my truth. I am the invisible variable.

In this time of rampant misogyny and hate, I needed to celebrate the strength and beauty around me. The work is a love letter to the women in my life and to photographic portraiture.

Ann Ploeger
annploeger.com