Handle with Care

Handle with Care explores the relationship between me and my stepfather, Scott. I grew up in the suburbs, surrounded by nuclear families but without one of my own. The nuclear family is defined as a mother, father, and 2.5 biological children. In the 1960s, this dynamic rose in popularity and was held as the paramount standard. I was socialized as a child to think that anything outside of the standard wasn’t normal or healthy. Scott came into my life when I was seven, about a year after my parent’s divorce. Enveloped by the nuclear family concept at a young age, I actively perpetuated the associated stereotypes, and unintentionally alienated Scott from my life in the process. 

Scott began truck driving when I started college. I recognized that we weren’t close but couldn’t articulate why. His career interested me, and I wanted to photograph it. Scott allowed me into his work life and it gave us a space to talk. The trips we took together taught me much about the rules of truck driving, but the most important thing I gained from the experience was a way to access our relationship. After many hours enclosed in a small space, we learned how to speak each other’s language. Those moments in the truck gave us the time we needed to really get to know each other. 

Within the images, several other threads are present. Consumerism is the driving force of trucking, and the reason this project is able to exist. Scott had become more accessible to the consumer than he was to me. There are also undertones of a female’s perspective of two historically male-dominated industries, photography, and trucking. My photographs reference and acknowledge this history while reworking it through a feminist lens.

The work showcases several short-haul drives through the Midwest. Photographs and videos are created by me and Scott. Our relationship is a collaboration, and so is this exhibition. I use film to capture these moments as an attempt to archive our own family album, much like a nuclear family in the 1960s might have done. Shooting with film allowed me to slow down and take risks without immediate reward. There needs to be care, consideration, and time dedicated to making successful prints. Similarly, developing a relationship needs the same attention. My hope in creating this archive of images is to rewrite the way in which family is documented and reduce the stigma surrounding non-nuclear familial relationships.