Tjianna Kelly, St. Gabriel, Louisiana 27 - 2000

Deborah Luster made "Tjianna Kelly, St. Gabriel, Louisiana" using the tintype process, so you know she wasn’t messing around. Think about the darkroom, the chemicals, the patience. The golden, sepia tones give it such an old-timey feel, but there’s something so unsettling about the figure’s covered face, and that little gargoyle on her head! It’s creepy, right? I can imagine Deborah Luster setting up the shot, arranging the costume, telling Tjianna to hold still, and maybe even cracking a joke to ease the tension. There's a lot of tension! Looking at this, I think about Diane Arbus and her portraits of outsiders, but Luster’s got her own thing going on. It's all about exploring history, memory, and identity through these haunting images. It reminds me that artists are always looking back, borrowing, and riffing off each other. We're all just trying to make sense of the world, one image at a time.