Left image: Skylar from the series The Father Project
Right image: Tanya, Althea, and Jonah from the series CNY Pride Families

Artist Statement

I once had the need to explain to my six-year-old son that love is truly special and magical and sometimes women do fall in love with women and men with men. My son asked if it was a secret. He needed to know his mommy was good and not doing something wrong. He needed to know if family and friends would still love his mommy and him.

Should my son go to school feeling he has a family secret? Should my relatives lecture me about righteousness? Can I hold my lover's hand without looking perverted? Can I love my lover strong without prayers floating overhead to douse our flames.

Light Work and the LGBT Resource Center at Syracuse University recruited me to work on the CNY Family Pride project. This was a reward. Behind the camera I witness families celebrating their lives. I found myself making documentary portraits of LGBT families loving—daring to love, touching—daring to touch. I witness parenting, step-parenting, and grand-parenting. Some recognized the non-blood relationships that are there to support them everyday—that is their chosen family.

The families that participated in the CNY Family Pride project have given us a gift. I believe consciousness grows every time someone speaks out. This project allows me to be apart of this movement to help put a local face to the LGBT community. Their community, my community, is your community.

My hope is that this project will help combat homophobia to make schools, religious, and work environments safe for LGBT persons and their families. I want to be a part of building acceptance for the diversity in the family, which includes LGBT families. My art has always been about the narrative. I participate in the record keeping and history building by giving sounds and visuals to my stories, my family's stories, young African American fathers' stories and now, LGBT stories.

Ellen M. Blalock

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