I’ve often wondered, when New Mexico, my childhood home, became so deeply rooted in my heart. It would not be until I started to photograph my father in 2013, and more recently, the New Mexican landscape, that I would start to appreciate how intertwined my relationship with my father and the land had become. The roots that initially took hold in my youth, have become deeply embedded into a place that has become an inextricable part of my identity and has shaped the way I view my world.
In 2015, my father moved out of my childhood home that was nestled into the foothills of the Sandia mountains, to a retirement community, La Vida Llena, a few miles away.
I have created the majority of pictures for this ongoing project in the neighborhood surrounding my father’s community and within his apartment. This collection of recent photographs is a love letter to my father and to a place where I am as much a part of, as it is a part of me.
-Beate Sass
Bio:
Beate Sass is an Atlanta-based writer and self-taught photographer whose fascination with people and storytelling has been shaped by her childhood experiences traveling and living abroad and as a mother and advocate of a daughter who experiences disability. Beate utilizes the powerful and visual aspect of photography in combination with the written word, to highlight and amplify the voices of those who are often overlooked.
Beate’s work has been featured in solo and joint exhibitions in the Southeast region including The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Southeast Museum of Photography, in Deltona Florida. Her portfolios have been published in Lenswork, Oxford America, and South [x] Southeast Photomagazine. Beate has found creative solutions for elevating the impact of her work and making it accessible to broad and diverse audiences.
