Under One Roof 2011 - 2020
Under One Roof
2012 - present
Under One Roof is a collaboration of photographs by Joseph Labate and drawings by Laura LaFave. Married and living together, in addition to making our own individual works, we work together on collaborative pieces. As we make our own individual works, we are continuously sharing and critiquing them with each other. This leads us to the ideas for collaboration.
Our collaborative work begins with Joseph’s photographs intended for the collaborative pieces. Together we select some of these photographs and Joseph prints them, each on a separate section sheet of cotton rag paper. Laura then applies gesso to the blank section of the paper and draws with graphite.
Joseph Labate, Photographs
I make photographs both by wandering out in the world and by setting things up to be photographed in my studio. I work with a broadly shaped umbrella of ideas but in the act of the picture-making itself, there is little or no thinking. I rely on the role of my subconscious. Inside there, there is a mix. Of clarity and confusion. Insight and neurosis. Joy and sadness. Happiness and despair. More questions than answers, the photographs offer a glimpse into my life, both directly through their subject matter and metaphorically through their style. For the collaborative work with Laura, I make photographs that I think Laura will be allured by.
Laura LaFave, Drawings
I begin my part of the collaborative work with reflection and contemplation. Thoughts, sensibilities, emotions and sentiments evolve. I succumb to these, though only momentarily. I look beyond and outside the photograph. My awareness is heightened. I assimilate and integrate these sentiments. I pause, strive to bypass the thinking, evaluative mind. There is no judgment. It is the essence of the photograph now that is within me. It also envelops me. I begin drawing on the foundation of the assimilation, not on the visual appearance of the photograph. Dichotomies are abundant; transient and immutable, still and chaotic, melancholic yet heartening. My work embraces humility, humanity, compassion and all they encompass. It is often what we are least aware of that seems most obvious to others.
All Images: 8.5" x 11" Pigment Ink, Graphite on Cotton Rag Paper
