LV Rivera
Liam at East End Beach, collaborative portrait.
A full-length, black-and-white photograph shows a man standing outdoors in short-overall overalls over a patterned shirt, dark-framed glasses, and slip-on shoes. He poses with a grounded stance on grass in front of a dense pine tree and leafy bushes, with visible tattoos on his forearms and lower legs under direct daylight.
Flickering
This photography project by LV Rivera, entitled “Flickering,” explores what it means to feel caught between worlds, living in the liminal, in the back-and-forth ouroboros of belonging. LV’s work explores the paradoxes of disability, capacity, language, mental health, and gender, using black and white imagery to strip the photos, like their subjects, down to their most vulnerable layers.
01: No Way Out
A double exposed black-and-white photo of a one-way street sign with its arrow pointing left, with another one-way street sign overlaid on top, its arrow pointing right.
02: Wasted
A black-and-white photo of a post with the stereotypical emblem of a disabled person, the person in a wheelchair silhouette. The post stands in the middle of a beach. There is a wooden ramp leading down to water with a fenced-in dock behind the post. There is a gulf of sand before the beginning of the wooden ramp, so a wheelchair user could not easily access the “accessible” ramp.
03: Life Goes on Around Us
A black-and-white photo taken just to the right of the inaccessible wheelchair ramp, there are dozens of people, families, children, individuals, dotting the curve of the shore and in the water. Children are playing, adults are sitting in chairs talking, people are swimming.
04: Too Much
A black-and-white photo depicting a person’s hand holding a small plastic glass under a running faucet. In their other hand, they are clutching 3 pill bottles. The small plastic glass is overflowing, water splashing everywhere.
05: Ya No Puedo Más (I Can’t Take it Anymore)
In black and white, a sink full of dirty dishes is shown. There is a roll of paper towels almost falling into the sink. The dish soap has fallen over. There is a jar of vinegar with punctured plastic wrap on top, attracting fruit flies.
06: Made Visible
In this black and white photo, a hand holds a cell phone with a video chat open on the screen. A woman is smiling kindly at the person holding the phone. The person holding the phone is visible in the inset square in the video call; the person is taking a photo of the phone screen and they are captured without a being seen, the camera obscuring their face.
07: Flickering
In a desaturated color photo with only hints of color, a man sits on a bed. He is shirtless, his tattoos and chest visible. The tattoo on his collarbone reads, “without shame.” The photo is a double exposure, so the man appears like he is in two worlds, the muted green of the comforter shows through his skin. He looks as if he’s flickering between two worlds.
08: Without Shame
A black and white, high contrast photo of a man’s chest. The tattoo at the center of his collarbones says “without shame.” His chest has many stretch marks.
09: La Ternura (Tenderness)
Two people are depicted on a bed, in black and white, with one cat. One person lays face down, with their arms crossed and their face resting on their arms, staring to the side. The other person is seated next to them, and has laid both of their hands gently and lovingly on the other person’s back.
10: Waiting and Waiting
A small white basket of laundry sits on top of a washing machine. The photo, black and white, also shows several tall cabinets stretching out along a wall, and a window in the background with a short curtain with fruit on it. Reflection from the camera flash is visible in the window, and there are inside three shutters at the bottom of the window. One is open, the rest closed.
11: Grasping
Two men sit next to each other on a couch in black and white. There are two couch pillows between them. One man is facing the other, while the other man face forward. The man facing forward has his hand placed gently on the knee of the other man.
12: Borders are Imaginary
A black-and-white photo of a fence, up close. The details of the fence, such as the wires interweaving, are visible. The world through and beyond the fence’s chainlink and posts is visible, but it is too blurred to make out the details.
13: FU--IC-
A sign, torn in half, still hangs on a telephone pole, in black and white. There is a house visible in the background. The sign shows the letters “FU” in the top row and “IC” in the bottom row. “Immigrants make Maine beautiful” is visible on the bottom of the sign.
14: Mareos (The Spins)
A black-and-white photo created using a prism to cause interruption to a tranquil scene of a house on a lake. The scene is interrupted by a refraction of a sky and a tree in the middle, along with a refraction of dirt and twigs. The interruptions of the refractions give the photo a feeling similar to when one is very dizzy.
15: Last Boat Home
A boat sails across a lake, in black white. The middle of the photo is interrupted by prismatic refraction, giving the effect of a diagonal line down the photo with a refraction of the sky, alongside dirt and twigs.
16: Cada Día Un Temerario Diferente (Every Day a Different Daredevil)
The central focus of this black-and-white photo is an outstretched arm and hand. The hand’s palm is facing the camera. “The arm has several tattoos, including one of an animal skull with flowers, and two tattoos in Spanish. One says, ‘cada día un temerario diferente’ (every day a different daredevil).”