Reconciliation

by S. Billie Mandle, S. Billie Mandle (Photographer), Kirstin Valdez Quade (Text by), Dorothy Day (Text by), Everything Studio (Designed by)

Overview

For ten years S. Billie Mandle photographed confessionals throughout the United States. She visited churches in small towns and large cities, creating images that depict the visible – and invisible – traces of people, communities, histories and dogmas. The images speak to the beliefs that define these dark rooms and shape this intimate yet institutional ritual. Photographing from the perspective of the penitent, she used a large format camera and available light, creating images that are more metaphorical than typological. As a queer woman raised Catholic, Mandle has long had a complex relationship to the Church; these photographs are part confession, part reconciliation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783868289510
Publisher:	Kehrer Verlag
Publication date:	07/07/2020
Pages:	104
Product dimensions:	8.82(w) x 11.02(h) x (d)

About the Author

S. Billie Mandle is an artist based in Los Angeles, CA, and Amherst, MA. Her work is internationally exhibited and published, including exhibitions in Korea, Israel and France, and features in Aperture and Cabinet. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the New York Foundation for the Arts and was a finalist at the Hyères Festival de Photographie. She earned a BA in biology from Williams College and an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Mandle is an assistant professor of photography at Hampshire College in Amherst.

Interviews

S. Billie Mandle: "I began the project because I wanted to explore the idea of forgiveness – what does it mean to forgive? How is it possible? What are the rituals our culture has for forgiveness? I was raised Catholic – went to mass every Sunday, even taught catechism. As I thought more about the idea of forgiveness I realized that for me it was intertwined with the ritual and space of Catholic confession – it was what I knew, it was how I imagined forgiveness. I was also fascinated by the architecture of the confessionals. They are small, intimate spaces that are rarely seen (it is often dark when you confess). The rooms seem to hold all the past confessions. Most are lined with soundboard and it is as if the confessionals absorb the voices of each person who confesses and one confesses surrounded by these traces. I love that idea – that to make your confession you must face the remnants of everyone who came before. My initial interest in forgiveness is a bit more complicated but stemmed from a difficult period in my life. Reconciliation is probably my most personal body of work. Throughout the project, I did quite a bit of research – there was so much to the confessional and the ritual I didn’t understand. My relationship to the space changed over the years. I learned a lot." – Excerpt from the interview with Jess T. Dugan for Strange Fire, January 14, 2016