What is a Cabaret Photo Gallery?

This performance experience is part of an art project to find out how our senses work together to inspire our imagination by way of music and photography. Does adding a visual interpretation of a song offer more options to connect or does it invade the imagination? Can a photo, accompanied by a song, provide additional layers of meaning to the photo or is it better left alone? Do we remember what it feels like to hold and touch a photo? What is the impact of holding a photo of a loved one vs. scanning and storing our family photos onto hard drives? Can interacting with a physical print bring us closer to the moment captured? Finally, can the storytelling experience, by way of activating our senses of sound, sight, and even touch, deepen our experience with memory or overwhelm it?

This project was inspired by a childhood of watching silent home movies captured by my Grandfather and viewed in his garage - projected onto a screen where the family all gathered. I remember the sounds of our laughter, watching scenes such as my father playing the piano as a young boy or his family on various vacations, but never hearing the music from those moments or the voices in those memories. It is further inspired by my lifelong love of music and unexpected discovery and passion for photography. Photography showed me a new creative part of myself that didn’t require access to my voice. Bringing the two together is an idea that has been in the making for many years.

This show is dedicated to my nieces, Jadyn and Josie, who inspire me to live life creatively and with deep imagination.

I love them endlessly and this show is for them.