The Museum of Contemporary Photography

The Museum of Contemporary Photography, which we will be visiting Tuesday, the 21st of July, is currently presenting a collection of work under the title--Beyond The Backyard--which highlights the cultural progression and placement of communal space.

The website uses the following description/summary: "Shaped by the distinctive forms of suburban development in the United States, the residential backyard has become a familiar landscape and a cultural phenomenon with widely recognized contours, from ideas about what backyards typically look like to the activities and cultural meanings we commonly associate with them."

Considering this particular focus on space and the yards we inhabit, how might you define what your own backyard has been? Even if you were raised in a place that did not have its own grassy quarters or aged porch/balcony for sitting, was there a place that you considered your own backyard and if so how has it defined your involvement with society or even the harmony of a familial setting?

This is one question to consider and answer before we attend the museum visit tomorrow. I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts.

-Flynn