Sunday Spotlight: Beth Chucker
Project Title: Ellie and Frank, Frank and Ellie
Artist Statement: There was a point when my parents’ existence with each other became rooted, the resentment that existed between them dissipated, and their marriage became Ellie and Frank, Frank and Ellie. In 2002, I got married and I picked up my camera to create images that would talk about a sustained marriage and the space within that marriage; the distance that these two people have from one another even in close proximity.
Ellie and Frank, Frank and Ellie
He met her on a blind date.
They went to the Shoreham Hotel.
Watched and listened to Sophie Tucker
He leaves
He returns
He smiles and says,
“I bet you thought I had left you.”
She smiles and states,
“You will never leave me,
you will marry me.”
I grew up with this love story of how my parents met. I always felt this was what held them together through years of doubt, years of just not liking each other, years of contradiction. I was proud to become their counselor, in the middle of them most of the time. We were a family of three. Finally, there was a point when their existence with each other became rooted, the resentment dissipated and their marriage became, Ellie and Frank, Frank and Ellie.
Photography is always a question about the photographer’s experience in life, Susan Sontag (In Plato’s Cave- On Photography) asks whether the photographer is hiding from their own experience when they are constantly behind the glass? I feel at times that I am hiding and experiencing life behind my chosen mask of the lens, but when it came to creating the images with my parents I know that if I had not started taking images of them, that the distance I felt they had with each other and maybe even me, could have continued. I am not saying my idea created closeness, but I do think it brought attention back to them and back to my mother’s statement 42 years before, “You will never leave.”
Ellie and Frank, Frank and Ellie started as a way to compare my closeness with my husband to my parents’ distance with each other, the work evolved as well as the photographer making the work. The image of my father cutting up my mother’s hospital food actually tells it all of their love for each other. The photographer (myself) knew intimately their history and strains on their relationship, I even once thought they should divorce. But in the last ten-plus years of my mother’s life, they allowed the fact that they actually grew old together to get them closer to each other emotionally.
My mother left us a list of what she wanted for her funeral, one of the things she stated was to make sure my father knew he was her prince. She had forgiven him for all the pain from the past, because that was just part of their history, now a blip. My Prince, I mean what an honor and heartbreaking. My father lost his lifelong messy wonderful family partner of 42 years. This part of the series ends with my father sitting on a makeshift bed in our family room where we used to all play Atari, watch Saturday Night Live and 6o minutes, have family gatherings, and my access to sneaking out at night. Here he sits watching TV as his back is curved and possible memories flood over him.
Bio: Beth Chucker is originally from the Washington, DC area. She received a BFA from both The Corcoran College of Art and Design 1994 and from Art Center College of Design with Honors 2004. In 2009 she received an MFA from ICP-Bard in New York City. Beth has curated many shows in Los Angeles and in DC. Her work was selected by Kira Pollack, Time Magazine’s Director of Photography for, Photography Now 2013, Center for Photography Woodstock. She taught photography at colleges including the Art Institute of California North Hollywood and New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, until the birth of her twins. She continues to create new work and participate in the art and design community in Montclair, NJ where she lives with her family.
