past exhibits

twice taken pictures - ancestral portraits - darryl sivad

February 2 - May 27, 2006

It has been said that history is, not was.  In this exhibition, comprised of portraits of individuals holding the treasured images of family members accompanied by personal narratives, photographer Darryl Sivad captures a present nurtured by the past.  In documenting 31 people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs, Sivad reveals the value these treasured heirlooms have in their owners' lives.

sampling of works presented

Upon first viewing this photograph many people respond, “Oh, what a beautiful old couple,” when in fact, it is a picture of mother and son. At the time, Mrs. Mamie Stamps was ninety-one years old and nestled beside her is Reverend Walter Jackson, her seventy-one-year old son. Mamie is my wife’s maternal great-grandmother and Walter, her maternal grandfather. Above them on the wall is Mamie’s grandmother Pauline Smith, who was a schoolteacher. Mamie told me that in the early 1920s she and her first husband were trying to save money. Her husband made the bank deposits and kept the bankbook. One day while he was away, she became curious as to how much they had saved. Not knowing where the bankbook was, she had to search all over the house. Eventually, to her surprise, she found the bankbook hidden between two hams in the deep freeze. To her astonishment, all the money was gone. What did she do? Well, she took out after her husband with a shotgun, and only after many pleas from her family and their prayers to God was his life spared.

Around 1918, Francisco and Elenor Sandoval migrated from Zacatecas, Mexico, to Los Angeles. A few years later, Salvador Sandoval was born. He is affectionately called Sal and he said to me, “We were so poor we had to borrow the clothes and shoes we were wearing in this picture.” Seen is Sal, his mother Elenor, brother Louis, father Francisco, brother Mario, and sister Antonia. Sal walked to school until the sixth grade without shoes. At fifteen years of age, he became discouraged by poverty in the barrio and decided to join a gang. He saw it as a way to help feed and protect his family. For the next twenty-three years, he lived by the rules of the streets. Sal wants to dispel the macho image by crediting his wife, Eddy, with encouraging him to get out of the life. It wasn’t easy because he fought against her at first and ultimately had several altercations with gang members. In the end, he was left uneducated with only romantic memories of wearing Zoot suits. Sal went back to school and obtained his bachelor’s degree in art with a teaching credential for E. S. L. (English as a Second Language) and art. Sal now teaches that education and self-awareness can make a difference.