Michael Patrick O’Brien “Familiar Address” at University of New Orleans

Michael Patrick O’Brien “Familiar Address” at University of New Orleans

In his photographs of family members and familial spaces, O’Brien translates the family’s lineage and spaces as sites of both repetition and evolution. Genetics are inherited, body postures are echoed, the formality of interiors is mimicked, values are passed down, death is present, children appear, religious customs are passed down, and family traditions persist and transform. With a photographer’s formal rigor, O’Brien’s starting point is an attention to color and light, yet scale shifts, the articulation of architectural spaces, and an alternation between flatness and depth all provide narrative potential within the photographs and between them. Some pictures depict an immediate, often intimate moment, while others do not seem to be rooted in a moment but instead suggest open-ended stillness and quiet.

At the heart of the project is the pull between being an individual while also being a member of a family, and the competing feelings of loneliness and belonging that ensue. The photographs lie between distance and intimacy. Within a family, one can observe with an outsider’s eye while possessing an insider’s knowledge.