Sarah Hiatt

Photography, Publishing

Excerpt from In the Midst of Things (Photograph)

Excerpt from “In the Midst of things”
by Sarah Hiatt

In the Midst of Things by Sarah Hiatt
$22.00

Paperback, 58 pages. ISBN: 9781943679096.

Quantity:
Add To Cart

Photographer Sarah Hiatt captures a side of adolescence that we only murkily remember: a feeling of weariness with the present moment, terror of the future, the awkwardness of being in between. Over the course of six years, Hiatt photographed her younger niece and nephews around their home as they grew up in the small town of Joplin, Missouri, for her series In the Midst of Things. The images serve as a coming-of-age story, a visual narrative created through their personal experiences and shaped by the photographer’s struggles with guilt, loss, and loneliness. As their aunt, Hiatt was able to depict the formation of memories and the sad passage of time in a uniquely intimate way.

Hiatt writes, “The photographs of my niece and nephews reflect the formation of identity, and the relationship the children have to one another, to their environment, to their bodies, and to me. They live in a rural, predominantly white area of the Ozarks. In this series, they are often seen in quiet spaces, isolated and surrounded by darkness. Their internal lives emerge through subtle gesture and expression. Their home seems a safe space as identities and relationships are built and nurtured within a domestic, womb-like environment. Children often physically and emotionally mature beyond those boundaries. Time extends while pushing us forward, upward, and out.”

As a native of the Ozarks, Hiatt brings a nuanced and honest perspective on rural America that is so often lacking in contemporary photography. In the stillness of Hiatt’s images, becoming an adult means growing out of, or growing into, one’s family, religion, society, gender role, and place. Hiatt’s photographs ask: Do we inevitably accept this place, these obligations, this repetition? Do we reject these constraints? Would anyone know the difference?


Sarah Hiatt earned her BFA from Missouri State University, and her MFA from Columbia College Chicago. Hiatt currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Photography

In the Midst of Things (photography)

IN THE MIDST OF THINGS

by SARAH HIATT

Sarah Hiatt’s series examines childhood and adolescence in all its uncomfortable bleakness. The children’s faces are intense; their house and neighborhood aggressively normal. Hiatt is different from the many photographers who choose to simply accentuate the eccentricities of a home or a family setting: for those photographers, it is as though an ugly wallpaper and a loud blazer is enough to make a nondescript couple fascinating. But everything that is interesting and strange about this family—whoever they are, wherever they live—seems to come from within them. In the Midst of Things is a work in progress, which you can (and should!) check out here.


Sarah Hiatt is a 28-year-old Southwest Missouri native residing in Chicago, Illinois. She is currently a candidate in the MFA Photography program at Columbia College Chicago. Her work centers around childhood and the transition into adolescence, when we become psychologically and physically aware. Her photographs have been in numerous national and international exhibitions. Visit her website at www.sarah-hiatt.com.