Brittney Cathey-Adams

Artist Statement

As a fat-bodied person, I am told that I must operate under shame and shrink myself as much as possible. When I stood in front of my lens nude for the first time, it created a radical change in self-perception. I realized that for two decades I had apologized for my body. As my work began to develop, I photographed with one question in mind, “What does being in this body feel like?” I began to answer by taking up space, and making a body commonly seen as undesirable project power through vulnerability. It is essential to consider not just who is allowed to be photographed but how. Images play a pivotal role in forming our belief system and engrain biases awaiting confrontation. The first place I could start was by drawing a line of fear out in front of myself and ever so slowly, over the last ten years of my work, step over each one. The images serve as an open ended and complicated relationship built on the notion that there is no way to grow into someone I can love through hate. Brittney Cathey-Adams is a photographic artist currently located in Portland, OR. Her work includes themes of body politics, and fat representation that interrogates the histories of the male gaze and self-portraiture. Her work has been on exhibit throughout institutions such as the de Young Museum in San Francisco, CA, Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA and Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver, CO. She was part of the 2019 Curatorial Prize at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR and gave a lecture at the Portland Art Museum. More recently, she was an emerging artist for SF Camerawork’s FORECAST 2020. With a strong passion for photography and art education Cathey-Adams dedicates herself to image making as well as sharing visual language through teaching at Portland Community College.

Brittney Cathey-Adams | Portland, OR

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