Alix Smith has received fiscal sponsorship from NYFA, for her project STATES OF UNION. STATES OF UNION is a project that addresses inequality in civil rights – specifically, in the rights afforded to gay and lesbian individuals. It is comprised of a series of color portrait photographs of same-sex families that break through stereotypes and create an artistic record of a heretofore-unseen family life. “Family” in STATES OF UNION, may be as few as two individuals who are in a committed relationship and live as a social unit. These units may include pets and may have biological, fostered, or adopted children. For the gay community this project holds relevance because same-sex “families” often do not recognize themselves as a family unit. The very act of sitting for a family portrait in which all members are present, serves as an acknowledgement -- to the individuals themselves -- that they indeed are a family. Straight married couples have a licenses on record that acknowledge their unions in the ledgers of history. Without marriage licenses, present-day same-sex families struggle to have their very existence noticed and documented. In a country that does not yet fully recognize same-sex families legally or culturally, the visual record provided by STATES OF UNION may be one of the few formal acknowledgments of these relationships. In 100 years, these photographs will likely be the only formal documentation that these families existed.

Alix Smith

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