Mavis in the backseat (Primary Title)
Cynthia Henebry, American, born 1973 (Artist)
I’ve been thinking so much about growing up—how to do it well, and what happens when the parts of us that are meant to grow up don’t. How the eternal children that live within us pass things onto the children we are in charge of helping to grow up now: grief, joy, fear, isolation, anger, abandonment, pride. . . . I marvel at this every single day. —Cynthia Henebry Working with a large format camera and film, Henebry explores the intersection between childhood and the adult world, often revealing a disconnect between adults’ perceptions of childhood and children’s self-perceptions. Henebry, who is based in Richmond, values her subjects’ ability to communicate for themselves and works with them in a collaborative manner. The child in this image, Mavis, emerged as one of the most distinctive models in Henebry’s recent work. Here the cavernous space of the station wagon’s backseat emphasizes Mavis’s diminutive presence, yet the intensity of her gaze suggests outsized thoughts and emotions contained within her small body.
Edition 2/7
Aldine S. Hartman Endowment Fund
© Cynthia Henebry
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