Mercedes Dorame | Thinking About Photography

Mercedes Dorame

Living Proof

It is a strange experience, touching the walls of your apartment with the eyes of your grandmother. I found that memories play an allusive game with the mind. They are tucked away, buried, hidden, almost forgotten until light, patterns, and objects trigger the drawer where they reside to slowly slide open. Suddenly your home is their home, generations collide, and memories cross paths, melding into one existence. These images are the result of that collision. I made memories from photographs, photographs from memories. I've watched ideas turn into substance, flesh into skin tone, light into being.

This body of work emerged from a need to piece together a past that felt like it was slipping from my grasp. It was born from my experiences of feeling powerless as Tongva burial sites were disassembled and my ancestors were removed from their resting places. As a Tongva tribal member, I have observed and consulted on culturally sensitive archaeological sites in Los Angeles and Orange County. At times this entails examining cultural belongings (artifacts). However, more frequently I am encountering burial sites that have great emotional and spiritual significance.

The picture that forms is of a Native American family that does not have reservation lands to call home. The family members do not fit Edward S. Curtis's stereotype of the "vanishing race." They lived their entire lives in a city that tried to erase their culture, a city that was once their tribal land. They became and always were and will be the population of Los Angeles.

The exploration and research for this work began with a gift from my father, an archive of unfamiliar photographs that had been resurrected from old boxes in albums. It was exhilarating to see my family as I did not know them: on their wedding day, as young parents, in formal family portraits, and on the beaches of Santa Monica, where I myself spent so much time growing up. By combining these photographs with the intimate space of my home at the time, I worked to re-assign missing contexts and to reintroduce my family into my contemporary existence.

The Tongva are Always Present - Honuukvetemme’ Woont ‘Ekwaa

We are Future Generations - Toomshar ‘Eyootaarxen

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