Baby Boomers, photographic series
While sneaking into the Truro swap shop in the fall of 2021, undetected as a person from Provincetown (only Truro residents may partake), I spotted a large, surprising photomontage of baby girls (1948, left side) and baby boys (1950, right side). It was on the floor leaning against the clutter and I quickly snatched it and carted it home, staring at it daily. It became, the Baby Boomers project.
The series places large newsprint photographs, mostly from the New York Times, over the multiple images of the baby head close ups, which then appear through cutout ovals in the newsprint images. Each piece is then photographed with the full frame and mounted on board for presentation. The titles include: H2O to Go, Fired Up, Eyes wide open, Forest from the Trees, Winners?, Public Service, USA, Gone to the Woods.
Baby Boomers are often called the Greatest Generation despite overseeing unequaled climate catastrophe, economic and racial inequality, unbridled neoliberal globalism, the Viet Nam, Iraq/Afghanistan wars and “American Exceptionalism.”
What did cute, white, happy, privileged babies have to look forward to in their lives? And what about their disenfranchised and marginalized peers? What did we create? What part did we play in the shaping of our post WWII world?
Exhibited at AMP Gallery, Provincetown, 2022.
Baby Boomers, found 1948/50 photo montage, selected newsprint 20”h x 29”w, 2022.