Mar Thames

Body Studies

Growing up, as I watched my maternal grandmother read me picture books from her lap, build scrapbooks of our lives every year, and pack the fridge with family photos, words and visuals were how I inherited stories. Now, as a multimedia journalist and documentarian, words and visuals are how I pass them on.

In my project Body Studies, I analyze 22 years of familial trauma, sexual abuse, body perception, fatness, and love overflowing. This work honestly presents me, Mar Thames, and the pieces that define a life. By utilizing materials in a book form, including annotated pediatric records, childhood photographs and contemporary self portraits, I connect the past to the present, asserting that our lived experiences are never linear. We are composed of everything everyone has ever said and done to us. We are creatures of holding on to, reckoning with, shaping and challenging our own histories.

In many ways, we are all embarking on our own Body Studies. This is mine.