Editor’s note: This is day two of our visual end-of-year project. In order to create a more perfect collective history to take into 2024, we asked some of our regular contributors and other photographers in the community to share the five best images that resonate with what they saw, learned or felt this year. Read day one here. Day three publishes Dec. 28.
Family is a vast category for those to whom we belong, who sustain us, during years as treacherous as 2023. It creates safety against the hypervigilance of surviving a hard world.
Brad Vest and MadameFraankie are photographers who brought family to the fore in recounting this year’s stories and lessons.
Brad Vest
Whether standing shoulder to shoulder with people confronting tragedy or sitting quietly across the dinner table from retired educator and avid local news supporter Al Vest, family is what Brad Vest calls the “beautiful and constant thread” at the forefront of his visual work.
After a decade of living and working as a photojournalist in Memphis, he sees his images from this last year as one part of a vast family album. As a profession, bearing witness requires a deep proficiency with vulnerability, particularly its demands and its limits.
“I have been present in times of immense pain and also times of great joy,” he said. After six years (2013-2019) as a staff photographer at The Commercial Appeal and another few freelancing, he’s accustomed to working in years with exceptional demands. And this year, gratitude continues to gild what he takes away.
“Large and small, each of these five moments have had a profound impact on my experiences this year, and it is an honor to have been present for each,” he said.
MadameFraankie
A shutter is clicked like a guitar string is strummed. A couch pillow pinned by cousins holding ground during a game creases like pavement in the parking lot where people kiss.
MadameFraankie tells her stories in music and vision. She is a prolific R&B instrumentalist in Memphis and also spends time casting verses in image frames that harken intimate visions of home.
“I’ve really been trying to get back to the basics when it comes to what gets highlighted as ‘monumental’ or ‘grand’ moments,” she said. “The images I’ve shared are filled with what I consider monumental and loving moments.”
Following a recent show at the TONE gallery in the fall, she is pursuing a larger body of work on “iterations of love,” she says.
“It’s easy to say ‘what’s the use’ when the world continues to feel like it’s crumbling, but it’s these mundane, powerful and natural occurrences that make leaning into love feel possible.”
Andrea Morales is the visuals director for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Email her at andrea.morales@mlk50.com
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