Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1291043
"I started as an artist learning how to tell human stories through photography, and I feel like I still work that way, even though the mode of p r e s e n t i n g t h e w o r k h a s c h a n g e d , " says Huckaby, who trained as a journalist before obtaining her BFA in photography f r o m t h e Art Institute in Boston, then her MFA from the University of North Texas in Denton. "Each body of work feels like a document of a time, place, or people. I want the viewer to recognize the beauty of those individuals or that place." For that reason, she often prints her photography on vintage flour and sugar sacks; like many children growing up in the deep south during the 1960s, her mother wore dresses made from the floral and striped cotton sacks that flour and sugar came in. "I started printing images of family on the flour sacks because it tied into my family history — now they've become this thing symbolic to ingenuity, and creativity and resourcefulness. I like the idea of tying these little girls into that history. I also hope viewers will think about the battles that were f o u g h t d u r i n g t h e C i v i l R i g h t s Movement and how w e a r e s t i l l hashing it all out — how much things have changed, and how much things have stayed the same." Letitia Huckaby's "5 Paper Dolls: A Contemporary Tale," by appointment, October 17 – November 28, at Liliana Bloch Gallery, lilianablochgallery.com; also find Huckaby's artworks on Bloch's page on cultureplace.com. Clockwise from top left: Portrait of Letitia Huckaby painted by her husband Sedrick Huckaby, on display at Big Momma's House. Letitia Huckaby's works: Untitled, 2020 Sharecropper's Duplex, 2017 Clothesline, 2012 Sarena, 2012 Max Burkhalter 65