Borders carry dueling implications, simultaneously arbitrary and absolute, fluid and static. For some, a border can instill pride and inform identity. For others, borders fail to represent the multiplicity of a region and its people. Worse still, borders can isolate, artificially separating communities and peoples.

 

In her series As It Was Give(n) To Me, Kentucky-born, Tennessee-based photographer Stacy Kranitz works within the documentary tradition to expand the narrative of Appalachia beyond the binary of right and wrong. Kranitz’ portrayal Appalachia acknowledges the impossibility of defining the region, which spans 13 states, though its exact borders remain intangible.

 

For Iranian-American, New York City-based photographer Stacy Arezou Mehrfar, place and identity are nearly inseparable. Taken between New York City and Australia, Mehrfar’s series, The Moon Belongs to Everyone, includes still lifes representative of memory, landscapes and color fields deliberately unclear, and portraits taken in Australia of immigrants, captured while singing. Together, the series poetically weaves together a story of immigration and the meaning of place through memory.

 

Working in conversation, the photographs by Kranitz and Mehrfar explore the nuanced and contradictory nature of boundaries while exploring how they can affect our understanding of place and belonging. While Mehrfar deliberately uproots our sense of place through ambiguous compositions, Kranitz situates us candidly in the region of Appalachia, prompting a dialogue on the geographical forces that inform our identities. Borderlines is presented in conjunction with the Louisville Photo Biennial.