Photography and Poetry - Troy Colby

Photography and poetry weave in and out together almost seamlessly at times. In reading, The Great Realization by Tom Roberts this week, images immediately flashed across my mind as I read his words. Poetry and photography can inspire us, move us, bring comfort, break our hearts, have us fall in love, and even fill in the blanks when our memories fade.

With the global pandemic, we are experiencing a wide range of emotions and feelings that are familiar, but feel so different. This changes from day-to-day. I hoped to capture a wide range of emotions within this selection of images. There is anger, isolation, boredom - leading to play, vulnerability, and acceptance of the things we must take on. Even with the hazy unclear landscape, we are still finding hope and compassion for each other.

Troy Colby was born in rural Kansas in 1975 and currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas. His work and research explores the delicate balance of family, fatherhood and the outcome of the family photo album. Motivated by intellectual and psychological inquiry of these intimate topics, Troy photographs his own family as a means of understanding the emotional qualities that come along with fatherhood. It has become his means of understanding while creating an honest interpretation of the idealized family album.

He received his BFA from the Academy of Art University in 2015 and his MFA in 2019. His work has been seen in Black and White Magazine, Lenscratch, Feature Shoot, Plates to Pixels, The Photo Review, Fraction Magazine, Der Greif and FotoRoom.

guest-curated galleriesMay 10, 2020