Reflections of Intimacy

REFLECTIONS OF INTIMACY

ARTIST’S NOTE

Reflections of Intimacy bountifully blends the bounds of portraiture and documentary photography. As well as being steeped in critical theory, it presents perhaps a tangible form of an ongoing praxis. At times this book may require you to pause and reflect. To get a bit deeper with its presentation by becoming a little intimate with its form.

Reflections of Intimacy is an extension of these words, of us, and of those with whom you share it.

Sincerely,

Jewel Mensah

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this book to my mother, whose constant selflessness helped bring me to this moment. I’m grateful for everything you continue to teach me. To all my teachers who have poured into me their knowledge and guiding hand, and in the process enriched my life so deeply, thank you.

I also dedicate this to you dear reader, through whom I can share that which we do here.

We are here together.

All I ask is to be here with us, now.

Settle.

LIGHT RELEASE

That which grounds us to the human experience at once yet liberates us all the same from the moment we awake to ourselves.

The moments of life call us to ourselves quite often, and when we can pick up on it–it asks that we reach.

Reach into ourselves.

Reach into the world.

These moments, regardless of magnitude, ephemeral or perpetual, service that asking.

They are moments of intimacy.

For they lie within the ebb and flow of daily life and require no states or statements of grandeur.

At worst, intimacy is framed within the confines of an act.

At best, it allows us to be open.

To ourselves first, then to the world through which we connect and communicate.

Connection happens at our most intimate.

Its only requirement is vulnerability; being open is being free.

TO BE INTIMATE

What does it mean to be intimate?

To pass through to another,

Another person.

Another state,

To untether the other.

How did you feel then?

And now…

Back to what brings us here.

Our journey through intimacy.

THEORY OF COLLECTIVE AFFECTIVE INTIMACY

“To intimate is to communicate with the sparest of gestures, and at its root intimacy has the quality of eloquence and brevity.”1 - Lauren Berlant.

Reflections of Intimacy explores vulnerability’s expressional breadth. A touchpoint to intimacy, a connection captured therein and shared within and without. This exploration further looks to shift intimacy from the private sphere to the public sphere utilizing prosaic affect as its ligature.