Exhibition Review: Gillian Laub
Gillian Laub, Grandpa helping Grandma out, 1999. © Gillian Laub
By DieuLinh
Documented over the course of two decades, Gillian Laub’s new photography collection portrays unwavering familial love while reckoning political differences – all amidst one of modern day America’s most polarising environments.
This body of work follows the golden thread in Laub’s previous projects, which explores intimate human relationships while navigating through complex questions pervading our society. An additional layer of complexity that appears specifically in this collection is that Laub wasn’t just capturing the polarising political realities of just any family. She was capturing her own.
Gillian Laub, Chappaqua backyard, 2000. © Gillian Laub
The photos came from her book, ‘Family Matters’, published in conjunction with her independent show at New York’s International Center of Photography. Here, Laub’s writing accompanies her photographs in each of the four sequential acts; each syllable was presented as an immersive sound, guiding the viewers through the frustration, confusion, and resolute hope through her lens. In Laub’s own words, we are taken through the funny, poignant, troubled, and challenging emotional and political landscapes of her family. As time passes, illustrated through each photograph, we’re allowed to inspect and inquire about their extravagant and nuanced lives. As the sharp political divide manifests itself, Laub’s family turns into a metaphor for the nation – one that is still grappling with the starkly different political opinions in the present day.
Gillian Laub, Dad carving the turkey, 2004. © Gillian Laub
Instead of merely observing the tension in her family, as her viewers do with this exhibition, Laub had to experience it: every difficult conversation at the dinner table, every political poster plastered onto bedroom walls, every stubborn text in the family group-chat. Navigating these difficult times, camera in hand, she sought to capture the essence of family – of her family – while simultaneously distancing herself from them. To this, Laub strikes a masterful balance between love and tension, loyalty and criticism, and empathy and aversion.
Each photograph is filled with conflicted feelings that become a candid narration of the complexities of familial life – one that resonates with many in the country. Although Laub intended for her photos to find an answer to what would bind her fracturing family, the images began to pose their own questions. Most importantly: how then shall we live?
Gillian Laub, Cooper, Nolan and Bailey, 2003. © Gillian Laub
Laub’s unreserved depiction ended in honest conversations with her own family. Through the words they exchanged, based on each captured moment and every detailed minute across Laub’s project, they edged closer to mutual understanding. While Laub and her family know that there may not be a common ground on their family matters, at the end of the day, through one click of the shutter at a time, they were able to realise that no matter what, family matters.
Gillian Laub is a photographer and filmmaker currently based in New York. Having earned her degree in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she also studied photography at the International Center of Photography. She contributes to a multitude of publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and TIME. Her work is featured in the collections of the Harvard Art Museums, the High Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, the Hood Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, the International Center of Photography, among many others. Laub’s book, ‘Gillian Laub: Family Matters’ was published in September, compiling over eighty images and accompanying words; her exhibition is on display at the International Center of Photography in New York, New York, from now until January 10, 2022. The museum is open 6 days a week, with timed tickets by reservation.
