PROJECT STATEMENT
Silence Is.
Unlike most chaotic and cacophonous childhoods, mine was spent in silence. Growing up with a deaf mother, I spent most of my youth not being heard. My project, Silence Is evokes my experience of her through self-portraits, family photographs and empty spaces.
My mother, now 90, reads lips and is quite good at it. At a young age she was taught to speak. She spoke with an accent, but most people didn’t realize she was deaf. She is laser focused on your mouth when in conversation.
A clue to her deafness would come when she would say an incorrect response during a conversation. Most people would assume that they did not understand, not that my mother did not hear what they were saying. Rarely would she ask someone to repeat themselves, fearing they may guess she is deaf.
I was not allowed to correct her misunderstandings publicly.
When she turns from you, you are gone, completely. When having an argument, she will say her piece, then turn away, giving you no chance to respond.
At times like this as a child, I felt powerless, invisible, and angry. At an early age I gave up trying to be heard, which left me spending a lot of time alone in my thoughts.
BIOGRAPHY
Lori Ordover is a lens-based artist who uses memory, nature, and the family album to investigate elements of identity and geography. Her work examines nuances of emotion, beauty and tension in order tell stories that a that allow for a reclamation and consideration of self.
She received a BA from Sarah Lawrence in Philosophy. After a career in New York real estate, Ordover graduated in 2014 from the International Center of Photography Continuing Education Program.
Ordover was selected as a Critical Mass 2021 finalist and her photographs have earned her recognition in International Fine Art Photography Awards, The International Photography Awards for Street Photography, The New York Center for Photographic Art and South x Southeast Magazine. She has exhibited with the International Center of Photography, the New York Center for Photographic Art, I(Le) Poisson Rouge Gallery, Umbrella Arts Gallery, Handwright Gallery and South x Southeast Gallery, amongst others. Her work has been exhibited at The Oceanside Museum, Dallas Center For Photography, and Bonsack Gallery at Burroughs School as an artist with Memory As A Verb Collective.
She has just released an artist’s book, Silence Is.
Ordover currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Los Angeles Center of Photography and Penumbra Organization.
CONTACT
View website HERE
Photo by Melanie Chapman