Family Circle (1985)

My photography art practice started in the late 1970s. At Ryerson in the 1980s I fell in love with documentary photography. I explored my sexual identity and place in the world by photographing two women raising their children. It became Family Circle.

In my studies I was assigned to document a situation. I chose to look at a lesbian family, two incredible feminists that were raising their daughters in a rural setting. I was welcomed into their home to witness their everyday lives. I went numerous times to observe and make photos. I essentially became a fly on the wall. I was looking for new models of what a family was for women like myself. I also identified and connected with the one daughter whose skin color was closer to mine. Although it was a study of them, it brought into question who I was. I was proud to make this lifestyle visible. This was also the time frame when the first gay and lesbian pride marches happened in Toronto in part in response to the bath house raids and the fight for the right to live our lives out in the world.