Brittney Cathey-Adams, Currents

Portland Art Museum Photography Council’s
Brown Bag Lunch Talk Series

Wednesday, December 18, 2019 at Noon – 1pm

Portland Art Museum
The Miller Gallery, Mark Building
1219 SW Park Avenue, Portland, OR 97205
www.portlandartmuseum.org
503 226 2811
Cost: Free to the public (people are welcome to bring their lunch)

As a fat-bodied person, I am told that I must operate under shame and shrink myself as much as possible. When I stood in front of my lens nude for the first time, it created a radical change in self-perception. I realized that for two decades I had apologized for my body. As my work began to develop, I photographed with one question in mind, “What does being in this body feel like?” I began to answer by taking up space, and making a body commonly seen as undesirable project power through vulnerability. It is essential to consider not just who is allowed to be photographed but how. Images play a pivotal role in forming our belief system and engrain biases awaiting confrontation. The first place I could start was by drawing a line of fear out in front of myself and ever so slowly, over the last ten years of my work, step over each one. The images serve as an open ended and complicated relationship built on the notion that there is no way to grow into someone I can love through hate.

Brittney Cathey-Adams is a photographic artist currently located in Portland, OR. Her work includes themes of body politics, and fat representation that interrogates the histories of the male gaze and self-portraiture. Her work has been on exhibit throughout institutions such as the de Young Museum in San Francisco, CA, Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA and Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver, CO. Most recently, she was part of the 2019 Curatorial Prize at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR. With a strong passion for photography and art education Cathey-Adams dedicates herself to image making as well as sharing visual language through teaching at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College.

For more information please visit brittneycatheyadams.com