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A Mother's Tree

This photo is taken from Morillo’s project, Umbral, meaning portal, gateway, or first step to something. She chose this title because as a mother, she aimed to take steps away from the childhood she had, to a better one where her son could thrive. She wanted her son Amandu to grow up nurtured and stable, in a way that her childhood in the Domincan Republic did not allow for. At first glance, you cannot see what is going on in the picture, but the frame of the mirror acts as a literal frame to the subject of the photograph, being her legs and her son’s face. Umbral is about raising her son, and exploring the fantasies she had of what childhood should be. “Fantasy” is such interesting diction, because it is just that, a fantasy, of something she did not have. She grew up in a very dysfunctional household. She even captioned a picture of her mother with, “Was she ever loved?”. This is something very taken for granted and shows that even though things look fine in a two parent household, and in the pictures she had of her parents being affectionate towards one another, things were not fine at all. Her feet and legs are the subject of the picture because they are inside a frame. Her feet are bare. The bottom of her body being framed is reminiscent of her roots, and her toes like the roots of a tree. This picture is somewhat of a metaphor for her foundation, which is something that she did not know and explored through her art. What was she grounded in? Another aspect was the way the top of her body was missing and replaced by her son. Her past led to her son, her future, what and who she is now. Her face is what makes her her, and is curiously absent from the picture. Her face is replaced by her son’s, who is now the focus of her life. 

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Erika Morillo

    Her legs and foundation lead directly to her son. This is true of all parents. Their founding morals, ideas, behavior, and wants play a role in the makings of their children. She is almost taking responsibility for who he turns out to be, by making it so that her past and her roots lead to his person and his present. There are many battling aspects of this picture. His eyes are shut, when he could be looking at her. This implies his being at peace and his being passive. Instead of looking directly at her, or the camera he is resting. Had his eyes been open it could have also been taken as him recognizing her responsibility in his childhood and upbringing. 

    The term I initially thought of when seeing this photo is a sociological term: grassroots theory, something she would probably be familiar with from her sociological studies. Grassroots theory states that an issue starts with the community and builds its way up. It starts small, and gains traction. From roots to grass to trees. From her roots grew the grass that is her son. This is the forefront of any sociology class, which is something a sociology major would have heard of. It could have definitely been something from her studies she lent from in her photography.

    Something very interesting is the way she positioned her son to hold the mirror to her. She could have put the mirror against the wall, yet he is holding it up. This goes back to her choice to raise her son a certain way and how she feels such a huge responsibility for him. He in a way is holding her accountable, by pointing the mirror right back at her, so that she has to see and face it. Not only face her roots and past, but who she has raised her son to be. 

    This image tells the story of her life and how it led to and spills over into her son’s. Umbral is about childhood, and how her story affected the way she wanted her son’s to be. Just because there are no words in photography doesn’t mean it cannot tell a story. This image is very fluid, and has so many different interpretations and steps that lead to them. In order to interpret or make an image, one has to follow the artist’s line of thought. Her inspiration spanned the time of her childhood to her son’s. This photo is a story which embodies her project statement of creating a childhood for him that is different from her own.

    This is reminiscent of the trouble that Maya from In a Window has with raising her own child, and not being able to connect with her, because of the dysfunctionality and trauma she herself went through her entire life. Erika Morillo told us how difficult her position was and how hard her parents were on her, but she responded dramatically different than Maya’s character did. Though they both had creative outlets. Maya explored her identity through her behavior and the sexuality she portrayed in the window. Morillo explored the fantasies of childhood with her photography. She spoke a lot about freedom and how it was important to realize your own identity. The difference is that Maya never escaped entrapment. First her father, then her brother, then her husband. She never tasted freedom and in turn could not relate it to her child as Morillo did.  

    There is so much emotion and passion in the way Erika Morillo used her photography to tell her story. She shows her past, her present, and her hopes for the future of her and her son. She has acknowledged her past, and even honored it with her projects, but she recognizes the shift in her life caused by motherhood. She has taken her family history and only bettered it, to give her son the fantasy of a childhood that she always wanted. 

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Sara Garcia

18

Essay with  quotes and explanation of their application.

“I really like quotes or anything expressed passionately because words stick with people and change minds.”

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