Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:"So kann man doch nicht leben"

Am Anfang war Jennifer gar nicht begeistert, als plötzlich eine Frau auftauchte, die ihre Kinder ansprach, alles fotografieren wollte. Doch dann entstand Vertrauen. Und daraus das Fotobuch "Jennifer's Family" - Einblicke in das Leben einer Familie in einem Armenviertel der US-Ostküste.

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

Am Anfang war sie gar nicht begeistert, so erklärt Jennifer auf dem Klappentext des Buchs, das sie und ihre Familie porträtiert. Dass da plötzlich eine Frau war, "eine Weiße" noch dazu, die ihre Kinder ansprach, einfach aus dem Nichts auftauchte. Wollte sie herumspionieren, war sie vielleicht eine Undercover-Sozialarbeiterin? Alles denkbar. Aber schließlich, erzählt Jennifer, erklärte ihr die Fremde, sie wolle einfach nur fotografieren.

Louisa Marie Summer, so heißt die Fotografin, und Jennifers Familie lernten sich kennen, bauten Vertrauen auf, und so entstanden die Bilder, die nun in dem Band "Jennifer's Family" zu sehen sind. Zwischen den Fotografien sind Protokolle eingestreut von Geschichten aus dem Leben der Familie, in dem armen Stadtteil South Providence, in Providence/Rhode Island. "Ich wollte immer ein Buch über mein Leben", sagt Jennifer jetzt.

Alle Original-Texte und Bilder stammen aus dem Band "Jennifer's Family" von Louisa Marie Summer, englische Texte: Mairéad Byrne (basierend auf Interviews von Mairéad Byrne und Louisa Maria Summer), Schilt Publishing, 2012.

Die Bilder sind noch bis zum 7. Oktober 2012 in einer Ausstellung in der Ober Gallery, Kent, Connecticut, USA, zu sehen. Außerdem in Berlin bei Imago Fotokunst vom 1. Dezember 2012 bis 26. Januar 2013.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:On the Block

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

I met him in Federal Hill and he was my serious stalker. I was fourteen and he used to pop by my house to bring me cigarettes. He was cool, real cool.  I used to sit there and tease him. I used to like walk by, flirt a little bit with him. So that's how I know Tompy. From the block.

Jennifer

Jennifer erinnert sich, wie sie ihren Mann kennenlernte: Sie war vierzehn und Tompy war cool, richtig cool. Er kam oft mit Zigaretten bei ihr vorbei, sie flirteten ein bisschen.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Names

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

I love Belly, I always said I want to name one of my kids after the movie Belly. It's like a hood movie. It's about dealing drugs. But I liked the names in the movie. I liked the name Sincere. And Kionna. And Keisha. Those are the three names that I liked. My friend had already named her son Tommy after Belly. My friends were all going to name our kids after that movie Belly! So the girl that was playing Kionna was a very nasty girl but she was very pretty. She was just on her own path. But I just thought that her face was so cute and she was so pretty I thought I'm going to name my little girl Kionna. I like that name. So I named her Keana. She's named after that movie Belly. She was like Mom, why you gave me that stupid name? She wants to kill me but I was so young! I was like Alright that's fine!

Jennifer

Jennifers Tocher Keana ist nach einem Mädchen aus dem Film "Belly" benannt. Kionna hieß die Figur eigentlich, und ziemlich fies war sie auch, der Film selbst dreht sich um Drogendealer. Aber der Name gefiel Jennifer einfach zu gut. Ihre Tochter ist inzwischen wenig begeistert: "Mama, warum hast du mir diesen dummen Namen gegeben?" Jennifer sagt, sie war damals einfach noch so jung.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Dreams

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

And Ny-Ny, that's my lawyer. Right there. She's gonna bail everybody out of jail. She's gonna be a good lawyer. She's too much. She's got the loudest mouth. You can hear her across the room. She likes to talk a lot. Yes she does. She don't shut up! She'll argue with you to let you know she's right. She won't be quiet for her dad. She even told her dad, Hey Tompy, she said, Um, you know you ain't my father today right? The milkman is. It's terrible. She's hilarious! Tompy's But I'm your dad, you know Ny-Ny I'm your dad. He feels like so bad. She hurts his feelings when she says stuff like that. And she takes advantage. He's so soft with her. She's like his little princess. She gets away with murder in the house. Tompy goes, So I'm your dad right? And she goes, Only if you buy me candy. Very smart little girl!

Jennifer

Ny-Ny, Jennifers andere Tochter, redet gern und viel, erzählt Jennifer. Laut auch. Sie redet alle in Grund und Boden, eine gute Anwältin werde sie später mal, glaubt die Mutter. Ny-Ny erzählt auch mal ihrem Vater, er sei heute gar nicht ihr Vater, der Milchmann sei es. Vater Tompy macht das  fertig, aber er kann ihr nicht richtig böse sein, sie sei schließlich seine kleine Prinzessin. Und immerhin: Wenn er ihr Süßigkeiten kauft, sagt Ny-Ny, dann ist er ihr Vater. Kluges Mädchen, findet Jennifer.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Public Street

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

Now it's me, three adults, actually there's four adults, two couples, and how many kids? I got four of my kids -- and six kids, yeah. I got help though. One of the adults that live here, which is Auntie Tink, she helps around. And Pokey, he helps around.  Tompy, he helps around. Then there's me. We all help around somehow... I pay eight hundred dollars rent. I pay because I'm the only one that gets an income here. I get seven hundred seventeen dollars, plus two and change. So yeah, I pay the rent with that. Right now I get SSI and I get Welfare. I get SSI because I got a sleeping disorder. I fall asleep. You can be talking to me and my brain just gets so tired that it makes me go to sleep. My brain don't sleep but my body sleeps. It's a pretty dangerous thing...

They don't give me enough to pay my light bill, my gas bill. I'm struggling now to pay that stuff, little by little. I only get paid the seven hundred on the first of the month, and the rest is on the 16th. On the 16th I try to pay my bills and get what I need for the house, like soap, detergents, and stuff like that.

Jennifer

Jennifer bezieht Sozialhilfe. Sie bekommt 700 Dollar zum Monatsersten, doch die Miete beträgt 800 Dollar, und natürlich gibt es weitere Kosten. Am 16. des Monats kommt nochmal Geld rein, dann versucht sie, andere Rechnungen zu bezahlen und für den Haushalt einzukaufen. Die anderen Erwachsenen helfen - Tink, Pokey und Jennifers Mann Tompey - aber Jennifer ist diejenige, die die Miete bezahlt.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Wishes

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

What would I change in my life? What would I change in my life? I'm trying to think. I'd change a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. Like probably uhhhhh. I don't really know right now. I'm trying to think of something. I would change uhhhhhhhhh. Oh my God it's so hard! I would change... if I could change something in my life? Basically my mom, from suffering what her son went through. He's like 38 years old and she still hasn't seen him, she still hasn't talked to him. I would love to bring her to one of these shows like to help her to find her son so she can see for herself that he's alright, know what I mean? Because down there they didn't help her find her son; they didn't find him. So basically he's still running around. She seen a couple of kids that could have been him. She never went to blood tests or nothing. So I would love to help her. That's probably my dream right there: to get my family together. That's it.

Jennifer

Was sie in ihrem Leben ändern würde, wenn sie könnte? Jennifer ringt nach Worten, nach Ideen. "Uhhhhhh, oh Gott, das ist so schwer", doch ja, dann fällt ihr ein, sie würde gerne alle Familienmitglieder zusammenbringen. "Das ist es."

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Words

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

I had a speech problem. And I couldn't get my vowels. And whenever I wrote something, it didn't look presentable. My mother taught school. And I guess her mother said something to her about me. And my mother was like Oh—he's having problems? And grandmother was like Yeah....  And my mother got mad because I didn't tell her but I was only eight at the time. So my mother said Well, I'm going to teach you. And nobody likes learning from their parents because some parents—Oh you should get this, you should know this—they get angry. Well, my mother did it a different way—she ripped out one of the window screens in the house. She cut it up in squares. And she was like Say Sally sat down by the seashore. And my "s's" like church, I say church wrong—she helped me with that. She took the screen, ran over it with a crayon and it made indents on the paper. So every time I would say church—ch—I'd run my fingers over it and I would get the pronunciation better. I did that with Keana. And also with Andrew. You know everybody thinks of it to be funny. Who the fuck rips out a screen and tells their kids to write on it? But actually it helped me. A lot. Nobody likes to be laughed at because they can't pronounce words right.

Tompy

Tompy, Jennifers Mann, hatte als Junge Probleme in der Schule mit der Aussprache und mit dem Schreiben. Seine Mutter, selbst Lehrerin, griff ein und half ihm - unkonventionell, aber erfolgreich. So dass er sein Sprachproblem visualisieren konnte."Niemand lernt gern von den Eltern", sagt Tompy, aber die Hilfe seiner Mutter sei eben etwas Besonderes gewesen. Inzwischen nutzt er ihre Methoden für seine eigenen Kinder. "Niemand lässt sich gerne auslachen, weil er Wörter nicht richtig aussprechen kann", sagt Tompy.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Everything is Different Now

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

Doing time never really bothered me. The only thing that really bothered me was being away from my kids and family. Everything now is different. It's like I'm the one got the camera on you, talking to you, you know what I mean? Everything is different. I care about a lot of things now. I want my kids to learn that if they work, if they even try, they find out it be a lot easier for them in life. Instead of going through robbing and taking and doing time, I want them to have the chance to grow up and have a natural life, not like us. I don't think we had a natural childhood. Me or her. When I spent time locked up I thought more about what I wanted to do with my kids instead of me doing anything about myself. It's not about me, it's for them. Everything is for them now. Not for us.

Tompy

Strafen im Gefängnis abzusitzen, habe ihm nie viel ausgemacht, sagt Tompy. Aber jetzt, mit den Kindern, sei alles anders. Er will, dass sie lernen, dass sie durch Arbeit eine Chance haben können - nicht mit Überfällen und Stehlen. Die Kinder sollen das Leben haben, das weder er noch Jennifer je haben konnten, sagt Tompy. "Jetzt dreht sich alles um sie, nicht um uns."

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:The Economy is Down

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

See like this here. See these Oodles of Noodles right? You can take these Oodles of Noodles and you can throw some ah, tuna fish in it. Or maybe some ... what else — hot dogs. Ham. Anything. You can mix just one of those meats with these — you get what I'm saying - and you can make a meal. So for a party of 10, you might need about 6 of these — as long as you give them a plateful — we talking about if you ain't got a lot, if you're doing what you got to do, you know what I'm saying. You barely trying to make it. That's me. You know what I mean. If I'm barely trying to make it. Like say for instance if the economy is down — the economy is down right now — and it's hard for people, you know what I'm saying? So if you take a couple of these, which probably cost you 35¢ or 40¢ in the store, a dollar for four, you can get, say, eight of them, you know what I'm saying. Something like that. You got to make do with what you got. And some time you might not even be able to do that. People don't realize that: You might not be able to do that. You know what I'm saying? But you scuffling and scrambling whatever you can. So that's basically what I do: I scramble. I get what I can. But as long as my kids eat first I don't care. You know what I mean? Kids got to eat first. They always come first with me. You know what I mean? If I don't get nothing to eat it's nothing to me. I'm big, you know what I'm saying? As long as the kids get something. You know what I mean? Now bread. That's another thing. Bread does not last long.

Uncle Pokey

Nudeln, Thunfisch, Hot Dogs, Schinken - Onkel Pokey erzählt von seinen Versuchen, für zehn Personen zu kochen und etwas für alle auf den Tisch zu bringen. "Wenn es eine Krise gibt - und die Wirtschaft ist gerade in einer Krise - dann ist es schwer für die Leute", sagt Pokey. Er rechnet im Supermarkt mit Beträgen von 35 Cents, und mit jedem einzelnen Dollar. 

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Five to Ten

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

It was my three brothers, Angel, Joshua and Frankie. My brother Frankie, I told him about it. We'd all sleep together in the bed and me and my brother Frankie would change pajamas. I'd put the boys' pajamas on and pull my hair back in a ponytail so he can't know the difference and then I'd get under the bed and I'd fall asleep under the bed with a pillow and blanket. And my brother would wear my clothes, my long dress pajamas, and he'll lay down in the bed. And one day he was looking for me in the bed and he tapped my brother and my brother was like What are you doing? He just ran out the door. I was looking for something, that's all he said. From five until I was ten. That's a long time. He left me paralyzed. He messed up all my insides. I couldn't walk. I woke up one morning and couldn't get up from the bed. He used to take me to the hospital, Oh what's wrong with her? The doctors didn't really know ... .  They had me in a wheelchair for a long time. I didn't speak. I had a dollhouse and I used to sit there and play with it and I would talk to the dolls. I would talk to nobody else, not even my brothers. I would talk sign language to people and they didn't think I talked. So one day I was playing with the doll and I was talking to the dolls and my brother heard me and he said, You talk! You talk! You talk!  And I was just looking at him, No I don't.

Jennifer

Jennifer erinnert sich an ihre Brüder, an das geteilte Schlafzimmer und Bett, als sie zwischen fünf und zehn Jahre alt war. Irgendwann war Jennifer lange im Krankenhaus, bewegte sich nicht mehr, sprach nicht mehr. Nur mit ihren Puppen redete sie - heimlich-, mit Menschen verständigte sie sich nur noch per Zeichen. Bis einer ihrer Brüder sie eines Tages beim Sprechen zu den Puppen ertappte.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Fifteen

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

Then I met Gordo's father. I ended up moving in with him and just chillin with him. He was very jealous. I was skinny and I liked to wear belly shirts. He didn't like that. I would attract a lot of attention outside ... He got real mad at me. He ripped my shirt.  He was very mad, like obsessively mad, You're not wearing this here da-da-da-da, and I just didn't want to deal with him. So I started staying at my friend Donna's house. And Donna said All you do is sleep. Every time you eat something, you throw it out. You seem like you're pregnant. And I was like Oh yeah, right. I can't be pregnant, I can never have kids ... Then I was back home with my mom. I didn't know nothing. I just started getting fat in my face and she was like I don't know, I think she's pregnant, telling the social worker. And the social worker woke me up at nine o'clock in the morning. She said Get up! You gonna come and get a pregnancy test.  Yeah right -- I took off. And the next day they caught me and they came with a cop and made me go take a pregnancy test... I had to meet my baby's dad finally, to kind of tell him that I don't know how many months I am but I'm pregnant, I'll meet you at the park. So I go to the doctor's appointment and he's like You're seven months pregnant. I was like Yeah right. I was so skinny I can't see it, I was too skinny. I wasn't showing no stomach and all of a sudden I just popped out a stomach and got fat for no reason. I was like What the hell, I only got a few months and then I have my kid, that's crazy! So I met him and he didn't recognize me. I was thrilled. I got real big. My stomach was big. My face was big. So you can't tell who I was. So I'm sitting at the park and he's like Where is this chick? I don't see her nowhere!

Jennifer

Die erste Schwangerschaft kam überraschend für Jennifer. Mit dem Vater des Babys hatte sie schon nichts mehr zu tun, als ihre Freundin und ihre Mutter die Anzeichen erkannten. Beim - von Sozialarbeitern mit Polizeihilfe erzwungenen - Test kam heraus, dass Jennifer schon im siebten Monat schwanger war. Als sie den Vater des Babys im Park treffen wollte, um ihn zu informieren, war sie so dick geworden, dass er sie nicht mehr erkannt habe, erzählt Jennifer.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Mad Stress

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

After my brother got shot a boy got shot and he got killed. We know him. That little boy. On Sumter Street, 11/28/11. We know Booda. He got shot right here. They blew his whole head off. I seen everything. So messed up. So messed up. Really bad. On Broad Street, 10/26/11. The woman in the car. We know her too. She was young. Esscence. She's done. She's dead. Left her kid behind. The other people that was in the car with her got shot. On Broad Street,11/26/11. One called me from the back-seat. It's been too much. It's been crazy. Now my sister. Too much stuff happening to her. And everything combined is like so fucked up. Life is so full of shit you know. Like you really can't live like this. I don't know, know what I'm saying, I don't know how can they don't stop the killing.

Jennifer + Tompy

Jennifer und Tompy haben gesehen, wie ein Bekannter erschossen wurde, einen eigenen Bruder hat es auch schon getroffen, eine Frau, einen Jungen. Die Schwester ist in Schwierigkeiten. "Das Leben ist voller Scheiße, so kann man doch nicht leben", sagen Jennifer und Tompy. Und verstehen nicht, warum das Töten in ihrer Nachbarschaft nicht aufhört.

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Everything Changes

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

I see my kids and they're going to be alright. By the time they're big, they're going to do good. I see them doing good actually. So yeah, I see my kids doing good. I see them going to college. I see it. I do. I see my kids doing good. I see them going to college, doing something for themself, being a doctor, either a lawyer or something, something great. By that time probably I'll live in a house and we're doing very good, you know what I mean? We'll be doing very good. Not as bad as we are now. It's pretty hard. Living. Paying $800 and all that stuff. By that time I'll probably be fine from the sleep apnea. I don't know. Everything will probably change you know. That's what happens in life. Everything changes.

Jennifer

Dennoch, Jennifer hofft auf Besseres. Sie stellt sich vor, dass ihre Kinder später aufs College gehen, vielleicht Arzt oder Anwalt werden. In einem eigenen Haus zu leben, das wäre schön, sagt sie. "Alles wird sich wohl ändern", so Jennifer, "das ist es doch, was im Leben passiert. Alles verändert sich".

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Fotobuch von Louisa Marie Summer:Eviction

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Quelle: Louisa Marie Summer

So yesterday, we go to court. I was mad. I was happy that I had another chance. I prayed to God that they switched up the judge because the judge was really mean.  And the other judge—he was reasonable, but then he wasn't at the same time. Because I just told him, I can't read that. I can't, you know what I'm saying. I can't read. I can't read none of that. So I'm like this is fucked up, he's not giving me a chance: Find your receipt. Find this and that and the other one. And all this stuff. I had two folders, I got two folders, two purple folders. And I mixed them. And I brung the wrong folder. But I did have the foreclosure letter. I couldn't see it, you know what I'm saying, I couldn't see it. My friend's trying to help me. She's getting in trouble because she's trying to help me get the letter and everything was going wrong. I had about enough. I started cussing in front of the court. I was like You got a nerve to take me to court because you ain't got your money because you ain't doing nothing about this apartment. I got my pictures and everything. I put them in my folder. I brung a bedbug in there. She haven't exterminate, I told him. He said You need to fucking ... You need to exterminate. My daughter got an ear infection for having a roach in her ear.  And he didn't care, it seemed like he didn't care. We still got evicted. And it's wrong. It's fucked up. This is my kids' freaking life. This is where they got to live at. I have no idea what's going to happen. But I'm going to get my kids an apartment. They're not going to stay on the streets. I can't afford for that to happen.

Jennifer

Noch aber ist diese Zukunft weit weg. Jennifer muss vor Gericht, es geht um die Zustände in der Wohnung. Se sagt, dass sich die Eigentümer nicht um das Ungeziefer kümmern, sie hat Probleme mit den Unterlagen und den Abläufen vor Gericht, zuletzt ist sie mit ihrer Familie aus dem Appartment geworfen worden. Ein neues muss dringend her, Jennifer will verhindern, dass ihre Kinder auf der Straße leben müssen: "Das kann ich nicht zulassen."

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