Recreating Photos from Kelli Connell’s Pictures for Charis

    For this project, I chose to emulate photographs from Kelli Connell’s exhibition Pictures for Charis. There are a few layers of inspiration in the photos I chose. Connell’s Pictures for Charis is inspired by the relationship between photographer Edward Weston and his wife, writer Charis Wilson. After learning that Charis (pronounced CARE-iss) was a writer, Connell, who includes written explanations alongside her photography in the exhibition, began to read as much as she possibly could about Charis (Dugan). Following her research, Connell set out to tell more of Charis’s story by visiting the locations where she and Edward lived and spent time together between 1934 and 1945, using her wife Betsy as her muse. The photos I chose to recreate were both taken at Lake Ediza. Kelli and Betsy hiked to the lake to find the piece of granite that Charis laid against in Weston’s photo titled Charis, Lake Ediza, 1937 (Dugan). Alongside telling Charis’s story, Connell’s Pictures for Charis aims to “queer this conventional genre of portraiture” (Dugan). As a queer person myself, I feel strongly connected to Connell’s work. I am particularly interested in using images from Pictures for Charis in this project so I have the chance to photograph my partner, Billie. I feel our recreation will add even more to the “queering” of this type of photography, as Bill and I both identify as non-binary. 

Charis, Lake Ediza, 1937

Betsy, Lake Ediza

Our Shirts, Lake Ediza

   

    I recreated Connell’s Betsy, Lake Ediza and Our Shirts, Lake Ediza. Betsy, Lake Ediza is a picture of Connell’s wife Betsy laying on top of the same piece of granite seen behind Charis in Weston’s Charis, Lake Ediza, 1937. Our Shirts, Lake Ediza shows Betsy and Kelli’s shirts laid across a rock, pinned down by smaller rocks so they don’t fly away. Weston’s work was taken in black-and-white on a 4x5 camera, as was Connell’s. To emulate their photos, I cropped mine to 4x5 and applied a black-and-white filter. Initially, I wanted to get my recreations as close as possible, but obviously I can’t climb the Sierras to reach Lake Ediza in the middle of this semester. I had planned to go to the Garden of Eden in Henry Cowell State Park in Felton, but the only day I could go didn’t work out, so I had to improvise. Hidden Beach in Rio Del Mar has a large breaker wall that I think contrasts nicely against the beach and some conveniently placed rocks lining the wall, so I chose to capture my recreations there.

Billie, Hidden Beach

Billie, Hidden Beach

    Billie, Hidden Beach is my recreation of Connell’s Betsy, Lake Ediza. For Billie, Hidden Beach, I instructed Bill to lay against the breaker wall, just like Betsy laid against the granite at Lake Ediza. I wanted our dog Hank to be included, so Bill is holding Hank’s leash in the photo. I had to repeatedly say, “Do you wanna…?” to get Hank’s attention. Unlike Betsy in Betsy, Lake Ediza, Bill is shirtless in Billie, Hidden Beach. I did this purposely to highlight Bill’s top-surgery scars. Like so many other transgender people, Bill is very proud to wear such scars. Scars that are so meaningful to someone should be depicted with grace, and I feel I achieved that with Billie, Hidden Beach.

Our Shoes and Shirts, Hidden Beach

Our Shoes and Shirts, Hidden Beach

    Our Shoes and Shirts, Hidden Beach is my recreation of Connell’s Our Shirts, Lake Ediza. I placed our clothes on the rocks in front of the breaker wall. My recreation is missing the small rocks used to pin down the shirts in Our Shirts, Lake Ediza. However, I did include our shoes because I think they added character to the image. Bill and I have distinctly different styles, and that definitely shows in the image. I included color images alongside the black-and-white, because I love color. My love of color shines particularly bright in my clothes, which is another reason I decided to include color photos as well.

Works Cited

“Charis, Lake Ediza.” MFA Boston, collections.mfa.org/objects/399384. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024. 

Dugan, Jess T. “Q&A: Kelli Connell.” Strange Fire, 4 Jan. 2018, www.strangefirecollective.com/qa-kelli-connell/.