Emmy Lam
Photographer: Thomas Holton
Title: The Lams of Ludlow Street
http://www.thomasholton.com/
In this body of work called, “The Lams of Ludlow Street” by Thomas Holton, he explores and studies the life of a Chinese family, the Lam family. Given that he; himself is half Chinese, he never felt like he was part of that Chinese culture. He also explain that as he interacted with the Lam’s and occasionally visiting them, a bond of belonging and closeness between them formed. As the result of this project, Holton began to understand the essence of what makes a person is based on experiences and not based on stereotypical association of their ethnicity or outlooks.
One of the photograph that stood out to me in Holtons work of “The Lam of Ludlow Street” was the forth image where you see the rows of flip flops on its upright position leaning against the wall. This imaged stood out to me because of its simplicity of the align flip flops yet also welcoming to the owners before stepping into the home. At first glance of the image, you can all assume the obvious things like, family size of four consisting perhaps a Father, mother, sister and brother. However, when given a second look and more for details, you see how the mother’s shoe is more worn on the tip compared to the rest which would make assume how the mother is perhaps a housewife that works a lot at home. Also, the one that you can assume that is for the father is decently dirt less showing how the father is perhaps not home most of the day but out working late and long hours.
Aside from analyzing the details and assuming stories behind the shoes of the family, Holton showed a great deal of photographic elements into the image. From this image is see a great use of pattern of the flip flops to then shapes of them along with the rectangular shapes created by the wall, floor and the open way into the house. Even the squares of the the tiles creates a sense of shape and pattern. I also see a great sense of balance of light and dark in a way despite how you see more of the whiteness of the walls. However, because of the dark flooring, doorway and even then darkness of the the patterns in the shoes, it creates in a way of evenness of light and dark of the photograph. From the multiple use of different elements that Holton incorporated into the image, to me shows a warm feeling of a family, yet because of the use of empty space of the walls and the lack of decorative things, it also gives off a sense of poverty.
This photograph does an interesting thing in that it represents the family with inanimate objects. We can’t help but create a narrative about family closeness from the way the shoes are all touching each other. I find your observations about the mother and the father from their shoes very astute. The photo certainly encourages that kind of story telling.