I Am My Ancestors — Emily Matyas

I Am My Ancestors

I Am My Ancestors, The Old Country and In America, is a two-part photo project that explores personal heritage, identity and immigration from Eastern Europe to the United States.

Having never met my paternal grandparents, this work mixes fiction with reality in an attempt to portray my ancestors’ lives. Using documentary style photography and self-portraiture, I role-play an imagined life in my ancestral homeland, Romania, and that of my grandmother as a recent immigrant to America. On one side, my character is a visitor to a traditional lifestyle in Europe, and on the other, she is my grandmother dropped into my current, American Southwest, lifestyle. Both find themselves as awkward outsiders trying to fit in. Yet, as the character in these photos, I become a part of my relatives’ lives and they become a part of mine.
This work presents an opportunity to connect with ancestors that I never knew, to understand myself in relation to a culture that, although mine, I never experienced, and to question the forces that make us who we are.

The Old Country

I Am My Ancestors:
In America

After she immigrated to the U.S. from Romania, my grandmother found many challenges to her new life there. Within three years, she was a widow with two children to raise.

She didn't speak much English, so finding employment was difficult. She worked in the cotton mills and cleaned railroad cars. She depended on her young son, my father, to supplement the family income by selling apples door to door and searching for scrap metal on the tracks. Forging for food in the neighborhood provided much needed nutrition.
She never learned to drive, or rode in a car, but she made many friends throughout the community, and found pleasure in cooking, spending Sunday afternoons at a friend's house, or having picnics under a tree.

Ship's Manifest — Ship's Manifest

New Home — New Home

American Laundry — American Laundry

Raking the Xeroscape Yard — Raking the Xeroscape Yard

Drying Food — Drying Food

Pecan Haarvest — Pecan Haarvest

Gathering Grapefruit — Gathering Grapefruit

Meager Meals — Meager Meals

Reminiscence — Reminiscence

Mother's Cookbook — Mother's Cookbook

Discovering Nopales — Discovering Nopales

Sunday Shopping — Sunday Shopping

Dusting the Metro — Dusting the Metro

Work Bucket — Work Bucket

End of Shift — End of Shift

Yard Work — Yard Work

Language Study — Language Study

Covering Graffiti — Covering Graffiti

Neighbors — Neighbors

Needle Wielders — Needle Wielders

Dad and Bunica's Portrait on desk — Dad and Bunica's Portrait on desk

Dad's Diary "I remember mother..." — Dad's Diary "I remember mother..."

Walking the Rail — Walking the Rail

Apples for Sale — Apples for Sale

On the Footbridge — On the Footbridge

Beginner's English — Beginner's English

Hanging Bag — Hanging Bag

Vogue at the Metro — Vogue at the Metro

Under the American Flag — Under the American Flag

Christmas Gifts — Christmas Gifts

Waiting — Waiting

A Wedding & a Funeral — A Wedding & a Funeral

Pregnant Teen — Pregnant Teen

Picnic Under the Palo Verde — Picnic Under the Palo Verde

I Am My Ancestors:
The Old Country

The fall that Andrei was four and Vasile had his first exhibit, I traveled to Romania to make pictures and explore my family heritage. It was October, green, gold and orange, just after the harvest.

The pumpkins had been gathered, wood piled for the winter, and the bounty of apples and pears transformed into glasses of fiery țuica. My hosts, Ileana and Petru, welcomed me to their home and invited me to experience their village life. I immersed myself into the culture and into the photographs themselves. Chores needed attending each day, as did children and animals. I followed in the footsteps of a grandmother I never knew, living the lifestyle of rural, northern Romania.

Walking Into the Picture — Walking Into the Picture

Adjusting a Haystack — Adjusting a Haystack

Tending the Beanfields — Tending the Beanfields

Yellow Door — Yellow Door

Morning in the Beautiful Room — Morning in the Beautiful Room

Sweeping by the Orange Wall — Sweeping by the Orange Wall

Milking — Milking

Horse's Home — Horse's Home

Andrei Outside — Andrei Outside

Splitting Wood with Toy Axe — Splitting Wood with Toy Axe

Cooking Squash — Cooking Squash

Exploring the Barn — Exploring the Barn

Laundry Service — Laundry Service

Prize Turkeys — Prize Turkeys

Drying His Clothes — Drying His Clothes

Raking the Apple Orchard — Raking the Apple Orchard

Fall Harvest — Fall Harvest

Wearing the Gathering Basket — Wearing the Gathering Basket

Hanging the Hand-Made Rugs — Hanging the Hand-Made Rugs

Red Dot — Red Dot

Dying Wool — Dying Wool

Roxy in Her Finest — Roxy in Her Finest

Muddy Footpath — Muddy Footpath

Gathering Produce — Gathering Produce

An Offering — An Offering

Walking Home from the Fields — Walking Home from the Fields

Birth of a Cow — Birth of a Cow

Walnut Harvest — Walnut Harvest

Rising Dough — Rising Dough

Cooking with Ileana — Cooking with Ileana

Red Pot — Red Pot

Talking with Matusha — Talking with Matusha

Weeding Unfamiliar Graves — Weeding Unfamiliar Graves

Passage — Passage

New Fruit — New Fruit

Heading Home — Heading Home

With Regards