Flesh & Blood

2019

Archival Inkjet Prints

The camera has long been considered a tool which goes hand-in-hand with domestic life. It has become normative behaviour to tie the camera to many social conventions such as birthdays, weddings, holidays, graduations and so forth, a tool employed to physically display our pride and affection of those most important to us, our families. Flesh & Blood is concerned with challenging how family is presented through the photographic lens. In this instance, drawing on her own immediate family, Coombe aims to dissect the authenticity of the curated-self permitted in family photography. Coombe is interested in how a medium, originally intended to provide a literal reflection of reality, could be manipulated to portray desired versions of ourselves and how this might be challenged.