Our homes are our most personal places. A new local photography exhibit features the work of a woman who convinced people to let her in, and let her shoot. I spoke to Lynn Gilbert, who explains it was more by happenstance than design.
“It wasn’t something that I planned to do.”
It started with a conversation at Turkey’s booth at a New York Travel Expo. She told the woman working there “I’ll come for a week in Turkey if you’ll be my guide.”
The woman said sure, so Gilbert planned her trip.
“When I got to Turkey I realized that what I was seeing was something very different from anything I had seen anywhere else in the world.”
She convinced complete strangers to allow her into their homes to take pictures.
“I’d point at myself and my cameras, and then I would point at their door to invite myself in.”
Not to overemphasize this, but Ms. Gilbert is Jewish.
“I never think of myself in terms of being Jewish or being in a Muslim country. I’m with people. And I’m with people that are warm and kind, and I am curious, and they are welcoming.”
The pictures displayed at the Roosevelt Library almost look like paintings. Light, fabric, furniture—a very different kind of beauty. And something’s missing: no electric devices.
“They are not involved with electronics. They really are involved with what I call living.”
She’s exhibiting at the Roosevelt Library through April 30th. For more on Ms. Gilbert's Photography go here.
