For this project, I sought to comment on interracial marriage. As the wet plates I sourced from were primarily from World War I, I thought it was fitting that the war was one of the elements that made interracial marriage possible. This photograph was taken by me, with my husband and myself as the subjects. We got married this past summer, and I used my actual wedding dress as the wardrobe for me. This brought a contemporary element into the work. My husband wore a plain suit that could fit into any timeframe. During World War I and for a decent time afterwards, relationships between black and white Americans were not only frowned upon, but could lead to the death of those involved. It is baffling to consider how close in time that cultural norm was. Overall, this work reminds the viewer of that fact and further drives the point home with scratches across the piece, most prominently right between the subjects. A scratch also runs across the face of the man to emphasize the fact that he would be more likely to suffer consequences of an interracial relationship, simply due to his race.
I sourced pieces from a few images.
The background came from this source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/civwar/item/2018667369/
The large scratch across the image comes from this source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018666106/
The curtain in the background comes from this source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017893758/
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