Leigh Davis' The Brothers
From The Brothers, copyright Leigh Davis
The Brothers is a series of photographs documenting the expulsion of the aged members of a religious order from their home on the grounds of a former military hospital in New Mexico. Only five men remain, and all but one has lived there for over 60 years. By capturing the physical spaces they inhabit, the project investigates the men and their relationship to their surroundings, the rituals they practice, and the spiritual community they foster, both amongst themselves and in tenuous connection with the outside world.
By “living in the grace of God,” these men are not supposed to be attached to their physical surroundings, but the past year has been very difficult for them. In July 2009, a month after I met them, their longtime home was taken over by a public educational institution. After sixty years of building a community, the five Brothers began moving out, one at a time. Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church said the displacement meant the “demise” of the Brothers’ mission on the site. When one of the Brother’s wrote me that “[o]ur community has been stripped,” I returned to photograph the remains.
From The Brothers, copyright Leigh Davis
This project was a private encounter, involving trust, intimacy, apprehension and feelings of isolation. I was initially drawn into the Brothers’ home by a desire to document the compelling architectural spaces of their lives, and my interior photographs reveal the social and spatial dynamics of the community. Ultimately, however, I came under the thrall of the men themselves. The more connected I became to their story, the more I wanted to utilize photography to construct and examine my own representations of faith.
I envision the photographs as a narrative experience, in which the repetition and association of fragmentary, banal scenes from a year of daily life begin to take on whole other aspects, evoking universal themes of transition, dislocation, and re-creation that are at the root of project’s central concerns. This project builds on my prior photographic work, which seeks to capture how people utilize, inhabit, and conceive of their living spaces. Ranging from a community of women living in a YWCA residence hall to the diaspora of homeowners forced to put their belongings into storage spaces, the process of identifying and sharing stories about people—as told through the physical surroundings they create for themselves—has always been central to my practice." -- Leigh Davis
Leigh Davis is a photographer, artist, and educator. Her work has been featured in a number of solo and group exhibitions throughout North America. She has also created projects for presentation in nontraditional settings including a public poster project on Fulton Mall, and a photographic essay in a public garden in downtown Brooklyn. Recently, she created a site-specific installation for the church of St Paul the Apostle, located in midtown Manhattan.
Davis has received funding from the Brooklyn Arts Council, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Puffin Foundation. Her photographs have been published in various publications including The New York Times Magazine. Davis teaches classes at Parsons The New School for Design and has worked as an artist educator in New York City public schools. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her website leighdavisprojects.com.
View more of Leigh Davis' project The Brothers below.
