Heather Abbott (Sitting on Wall), Collaborator Portrait
Heather Abbott
All My Friends Are Strangers
Heather Abbott (they/them) is a Black, queer, multidisciplinary creative working & living in Austin, TX. Their work with imagery focuses on the individual and the individual's relationship with the world around them. Heather started image-making in middle school with “throw away” cameras, grew to love photojournalism post-college, and now continues to make both still & moving documentary shorts.
Instagram: @thegoodchild
Artist Statement: All My Friends Are Strangers probes at my recent ghostly relation to society and examines moments of life that I am not a part of, but bear witness to. With these voyeuristic snapshots, I attempt to visualize feelings of loss of community. I use specific vantage points to make viewers feel as if they’re both familiar and distant from the subjects. I am presenting the invisible threshold that stands between knowing and not knowing another person. This work shows the often silent fight against calcifying loneliness. The very need to enter others’ orbits in order to achieve these images allowed me to process how I choose to and not to participate in the world around me.
01. Two people eat at a table on an outdoor patio on a sunny day. Their faces are hidden by a black screen to guard them from the sun. Nearly cropped out of the image – but still visible in the lower right corner – a sign reads, “Welcome.”
02. Outside on a concrete trail in the city, a shirtless person jogs with their phone in their right hand. The person is in the center frame and in the foreground. On the other side of them is the hand railing for the running trail. And in the background, tall trees sit below a highway overpass.
04. Outside in a mall parking lot, a rainbow of black car tire marks interrupt perfectly painted white parking space lines. The parking lot takes up most of the frame, but far off in the horizon there are small trees and light posts in front of a mall entrance.
03. Outside in the shade on a sunny day, a small group of teenagers convene in a social circle. They have recently been swimming and playing outside. A few of the teenagers have their back to the camera as they talk with their friends who sit on a short, brick wall. 1 of the teens has their hand over their face, head thrown back, as if they’re experiencing embarrassment or disgust in something their friend said.
05. Outside on a bright day, passersby on a city street are reflected in the side mirror of a car. Their backs are to the mirror as they walk the opposite direction of the vehicle. The person nearest to the mirror is wearing a backpack and looks like a city commuter.
06. Outside on a lake, a person stands on a paddleboard. They’re surrounded by nothing but lake water, accompanied by their pet dog at the helm of the paddleboard. The image was captured from above, providing an aerial view of the subject. The bottom of the image shows a slight light leak that makes the image appear light brown at the image’s edge.
07. Outside on a sunny day in the city, a person sits far away in a kayak on the lake. The person is overshadowed by a highway overpass, catching a break from the sun and heat. In the background, tall trees line the shore of the lake.
08. On a bright, sunny day with blue skies, various groups of people enjoy taking a break in a clear, shallow creek. In the middle ground of the image, 3 people sit together in the creek with their backs to the camera. All 3 of the people look to their right as if watching something on the shoreline. The shoreline is lined with tall, lush trees.
09. Outside at a large natural swimming pool, a person sits in the shade on the lawn. The person’s body language is relaxed with one arm resting on one of their knees. With their opposite hand, the person holds a cell phone and looks down at it, oblivious to the other people occupying space around them – walking the pool’s sidewalk or swimming with others.
10. Shrouded in darkness in the center of the frame, the artist stares blankly at the camera lens. The image is highly grainy and without color except for a red-orange light cast on the artist’s skin. Their face seems to float, as there is no indication of a body beneath the neckline.
11. Inside at a diner, a group of friends sit at a corner booth and engage in conversation together. The group is in the center frame, lit by natural light shining in through the windows behind them. The group of friends are the brightest spot in the dim diner and are mostly surrounded by empty tables.
12. A person sits at a table by themself inside a dim, empty restaurant. There are vacant tables and chairs in the foreground of the frame and on into the background where the individual sits. The person might be reading, but the image is too grainy and dark to tell what, exactly, they’re doing. Behind the individual, light shines through 3 big windows.
13. Alone outside at a public park, a person sits at a picnic table with their back to the camera. A tree casts a large shadow above them, marking the ground with its silhouette. Through the shade, small specks of sun shine through. Far off in the distance, a group of people play sports together in front of a horizon line of trees.