Here is a body of work from another interesting photographer I met at PhotoLucida. Donna Pinckley showed prints from this series, "Sticks and Stones," which is a work in progress, sadly, as Pinckley continues to meet mixed race couples who experience verbal abuse because of their skin colours.
Alongside teaching, Arkansas-based Pinckley has been making strong portraits for years. When you're done here, check out her colour work.
Read her statement below, and View the full screen magazine photo feature.
"For over twenty years I have photographed a particular social and cultural group of children. Before my eyes and in front of my camera they have passed through adolescence into young adulthood. My goal throughout has been to portray not how the world sees them, but how they see themselves.
"I began by working with one child at a time, but as my subjects have grown up and matured, people and relationships have replaced toys and skateboards, both in their lives and in my photographs--siblings and friends, casual acquaintances, and mostly recently, romantic partners.
""Sticks and Stones" began with an image of one of my frequent subjects and her African-American boyfriend. Her mother and I were catching up in the kitchen when she told me of the cruel taunts hurled at her daughter for dating a boy of another race. As she was speaking I was reminded of another mother in another kitchen many years ago, whose daughter had been the object of similar racial slurs. What struck me was the resilience of both couples in the face of derision, their refusal to let others define them.
"I have continued photographing interracial couples of all ages, aiming as always to capture how they see themselves, the world of love and trust they have created despite adversity. I began adding the hateful words they've been subjected to at the bottom of the images as a reminder of how the world too often sees them. For me, and I hope for viewers, the juxtaposition is stark and disturbing."