A Gift to the Chinese People — The Façade of the British Pavilion at Expo 2010 — Shanghai Photo by Laurie E. Hicks
Detail-oriented
While Laurie Hicks visited China, she wasn’t just documenting artists at work — she was an artist at work. Hicks’ own photography and research centers on memory and the tourist experience. For instance, a recent project includes 2,500 pictures of tourists taking pictures.
“I’m really interested in the relationship between imagery and memory,” Hicks says. “What is it that we remember and how do we remember it? Our memories of places are often constructed by the stories we tell and the pictures we bring home rather than by the actual experiences we had in the place itself.”
For Hicks, the story is in the details. She’s less interested in the grand panoramic view than in the small details:
a window latch, a piece of graffiti or an unusual building façade.
“These types of things are, to me, what make a place a place,” Hicks says.
