Sophie Barbasch
Fault Line
Fault Line is a project I am doing in the small coastal town of Brooklin, Maine. The protagonist is my younger cousin Adam, who lives there. I also photograph my brother, father, and other cousins. I chose the title because a fault line alludes to where the earth splits in an earthquake (a metaphor for a divided family with a complicated history) and also alludes to fault, or blame (I wonder, how does a family support each other, even when things aren’t perfect?). My goal is to show the weight we all carry and how we are both connected and isolated from each other.
Bio
Sophie Barbasch is a photographer based in New York City. She earned her MFA in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BA in Art and Art History from Brown University. Selected grants and residencies include the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the Blue Mountain Center, and a Fulbright Fellowship to Brazil.
Happy to see this essay here. Great to see essential and excellent photography taking command and the priority, rather than lagging or simply being defeated by the weight of an imposed concept, as one sees too often these days.
Also great to see photographs that aren’t trying too hard to tell a story or to be “about something,” leaving not only mystery for the viewer but also encouraging the viewer to form his or her own thread of feeling or meaning. Congratulations, Sophie, on this wonderful essay.
I found some of these really, really compelling (the rear view mirror, the covered eyes, asleep by the closet, sheet-covered boy on the beach).
But others I found empty, neither strong enough to stand on their own compared to the great shots, or with enough to say to contribute to the essay as a whole (red jacket, bbq, road under the stars).