Artist Blog
Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.
1/16 My Kindergarten School Photograph, 2014
2/16 My Father and I at my First Birthday, 2014
3/16 My Father and His, 2014
4/16 My Father, 2014
5/16 My Father as Taken by my Mother, 2014
6/16 Untitled (Self-Portrait), 2014
7/16 My Mother and I, 2014
8/16 My Mother Looking Off into the Distance, 2014
9/16 My Aunt Natilia Sitting at a Table, 2014
10/16 My Mother, 2014
11/16 My Aunt Natilia as Painted by my Grandfather, 2014
12/16 My Aunt Natilia Standing Next to a Tree, 2014
13/16 My Aunt Natilia in Front of Her Childhood Home, 2014
14/16 Exhibition View, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY, 2014
15/16 Exhibition View, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY, 2014
16/16 Exhibition View, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Long Island City, NY, 2014
Kalen Na’il Roach
Jan 23, 2016 - Daniel Terna
Family Ties, A Fool’s Paradise "While I constantly gather more and more images of the people I’m most familiar with, from times that I remember and times I don’t, I see so much yet so little. Family I thought I knew, family I used to know, and family I have never known. Personal histories; reflections; myself; my mom; my dad; scratches; yellow borders; and rough, torn edges. I can’t see one without the other, and I can’t separate the surface from what lies within it. The people in these images occupy space in a photographic facade that ages, rips, and tears. So much so, that they become one and the same. Still, I’m looking at and past the surface for things that may not be there. Can I see myself? Can my family see themselves? Can we see each other? Are these intertwined histories we all share embedded in the layers of paper and image? I don’t know, but I can’t stop looking." Kalen Na'il Roach (b. 1992) is an artist from Maryland currently working in photography, collage, video, and installation. Roach’s work is anchored in the image of his own family and questions how this image is created from both the photographic archive and memory. As part of his practice, Roach explores and reconstructs the physical, metaphorical, and illusionary surfaces of photographs. He graduated with his B.F.A. in Photography from St. John's University in 2014 and completed the International Center of Photography's One-Year General Studies Program in 2013. [vimeo video_id="66120093" width="1000" height="563“] www.kalenroach.com