Franklin Ratliff
Franklin Ratliff work examines how family, memory, and ritual shape ideology. As Ratliff explains, "By transforming family photographs, I reflect on the nature of memory. I use places and experiences from my past and my family’s past to create personal myths. I focus on recording moment-to-moment sensations. This intuitive process is a ritual through which I conjure personal myths that often challenge the cultural myths that informed my childhood. Instead of trying to arrive at a specific image, I record the sensations that a subject inspires. I can describe the memories and feelings that inspire these; however, parts of their nature are still mysterious to me. That is what excites me and draws me to them. Memory collapses time and allows us to see past and present simultaneously. This stereoscopic view is how we understand our experiences. The collision of past and present is a site of conflict. The fenced-in backyard serves as a container for this conflict in my work. It has personal significance to me; I remember having fires in the backyard growing up. My father and I were always the only two left around the firepit at the end of the night. He would tell me stories about his childhood and my grandparents. The fenced-in backyard is where I heard the stories that make up my family’s mythology. Like family photographs, my father’s stories connected me to the past, making me feel like the continuation of a familial organism." Franklin Ratliff is originally from Ashland, Kentucky. He earned his BFA from the University of North Florida, and MFA from the University of Florida Gainesville. He teaches and creates his studio work in Jacksonville.