Erika 

Erika Photographs 1998-2013 is a photographic study of one woman over a period of fifteen years. The project can be viewed as a handmade case filled with (30) 8x10” pigment prints. I photographed Erika from 1998 - 2013. This is a collaborative photographic dialog. Erika’s words are printed on the backs of each print. The images depict her in various stages of personal evolution - from her years as a struggling artist, through her founding of an avant-garde theater company, marriage, divorce and single motherhood. Erika herself commands the attention by telling her own story.

The project is intended not as a book, but as a - sort of coffee table objet d’art. The prints are loose, meant to be handled and turned over, each inscribed with Erika’s insights into those rocky but exciting first ten years post college in rapidly changing New York. On the back of one print she says:

"I had just gotten divorced. I had to let go of that beautiful and cheap loft. It was a rough time, but I had to find a room of my own. I ended up renting a room in a big mansion in Crown Heights. It was a lonely, isolating transition. In breakups I always seem to be the one getting rid of all our things. In this room the bed - all the furniture - was not mine. All I had was my mirror and clothes. I called it my room, but I wasn’t allowed to move anything in the house. Everything had to stay exactly where it was.”

The Erika box is a long-term investigation of dreaming, risk-taking, loving, motherhood and survival. The project is dear to my heart as is also an exploration of our friendship, creative ideas and our yearly dance with light and shadow.

My hope is that a handful of people bring this box into their home and leave it out for others to enjoy - perhaps as a curious box of family pictures of a distant relative who chose a different path in life. An essay is included, extending my intimate thoughts about the project. The Erika box is available as a limited edition of 10.

Jason Langer, 2020