Between Bodies

What’s between you and me? Between us and them? Between our bodies and the places we inhabit? Between the sky, the land, the water? Between wild bodies and built spaces? Between absence and presence? Between who we are now and who we long to become?

Mike Belleme

James Prochnik

Mike Belleme

Beate Sass

What is Between Bodies?

At Kinship, our calls for engagement begin and end in “between” spaces.

The first is between the known and the unknown—where we invite you to linger in uncertainty long enough to shape your own authentic questions. We have learned through our previous calls for engagement that a question is a powerful thing. Well-asked questions transcend competing certainties and dwell in the open and inclusive field of wonder. Here, the tender unknown thrives in honesty, humility, vulnerability, playfulness, and especially creativity (the best “between” of all).

The poet Pádraig Ó Tuama reminds us that the creative process is always an invitation to “engage the adventure of a new curiosity and reverence for the questions that are alive in you, the questions alive in the world that you feel drawn to.”

As you ponder what Between Bodies means to you, we invite you to keep an eye out for the questions that come alive in you.

To help you get started, we have collected thoughts, sample questions, and images from our Kinship advisory team, practice group facilitators, and upcoming featured artists. Think of the offerings below as sparks for your own curiosity and wonder. We invite and encourage you to follow your process wherever it takes you. If you find more inspiration in mapless terrains, ignore the ponderings below, skip to the bottom, and jump right in.

Ruth Steinberg

Raymond Thompson Jr.

What is Between Bodies?

As you begin noticing the questions that arise in you, some of you might be more drawn to questions about bodies and embodiment. What is a body? Where does one body end and another body begin? How does your relationship with your own body shape the way we respond to other bodies and the earth’s body?

It’s through the body that we connect with the world around us. Our experiences begin with the senses—the five physical senses, as well as the internal senses of intuition, proprioception, and emotions. While photography is a visual medium, it’s very much dependent on other sensual experiences. By attuning to what our body is saying and feeling, we incorporate a full range of sensual experiences into our photographs.

Through embodied practices and rekindling long-forgotten sensorial ways of knowing, can photography help us unearth and flesh out the relationships that exist in our most embodied moments? If so, how can we use our practice to invite more sensual, intuitive ways of making and knowing?

Jesse Clark

Frances Bukovsky

What is Between Bodies?

Maybe you are drawn to the between spaces themselves, thinking of them not as negative spaces to fill but rather as positive spaces to be activated by. That betwixt and between that immeasurably animates intervals and openings between the visible and invisible, bound and unbound. In these liminal spaces, you might find yourself dwelling in moments of grace or bewilderment where presence arises alongside absence, portals to the past are alive with future possibilities, and seeming opposites come together in moments of surprising creativity.

Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, the editor of Emergence Magazine, urges us to recognize the liminal—the space between bodies and worlds—as an invitation to step into new ways of being and becoming. What does photography have to offer us in these spaces? Can learning to dwell creatively in “between” help us navigate our rapidly shifting landscapes in this unprecedented time of transition and transformation? The photographer Robert Adams reminds us that the medium of photography has always been especially open to visionaries at the margins. And likewise, Kinship is a haven for curious and inquisitive photographers of all levels.

If you are eager to push the boundaries and limitations of your perceptions, this might be just the invitation you need to explore, experiment, and traverse new territories in your photographic practice.

Erik Mace

James Prochnik

What is Between Bodies?

Maybe, your heart leans more towards what is exchanged between bodies.

In this rapidly polarizing world, where empathy, compassion, and understanding are in short supply, can photography positively shape and change how we relate to each other and the natural world? Can it help speak to the physical and emotional experiences of those who are inhabiting bodies that are not readily accepted or understood—and the tension, vulnerability, and resilience of occupying spaces that are hostile or unaccommodating to certain human and more-than-human bodies?

As Mike Belleme, photographer and co-founder of Kinship, so beautifully reminds us, we are humans on the slow road to remembering. And the road to remembering kinship isn’t always straightforward and simple. Sometimes, what passes between bodies is painful, and bearing witness takes place in silence. And sometimes, what passes between bodies is so exquisitely beautiful that it defies description. Here, photography comes into its fullness at the far edges of language, right where words fail. Through the quality of our presence and attention, human and more-than-human bodies echo with luminous grace. And then, what passes between bodies is something akin to love.

With practice, can photography inspire new ways of seeing and responding that embrace vulnerability, longing, and loss alongside the possibility of intimacy, communion, joy, and belonging? In kinship, can photography become a way of remembering the vital and tender beauty that connects us, one to the other, when the world is wholly seen through the eyes of the heart?

Kimberly M. Anderson

Melanie Carvalho

What is Between Kindred Bodies?

While the Kinship call for engagement is the hub of our community, your courageous and generous sharing is the heart. This year, in the spirit of between bodies we will be emphasizing collaborative making as an essential element of how we work together. Here, Between Bodies becomes a celebration of the embodied collective wisdom of the community and the surprises that arise in the shared space between us. Through community gatherings, practice groups, collaborative community prompts, courageous sharing, and curated community exhibitions, we will find new ways of making meaning together.

We hope you will join us on this quest of questioning, exploring, and discovering.