TITLE: After Midnight

After Midnight is a portrait of Sarah, the first person I ever photographed. She has been photographed by high profile photographers, including my former boss, Annie Leibovitz and I was nervous to ask her. She was familiar with my paintings and was excited to be a part of something new to me. She recommended coming to her apartment after midnight to get a variation of interesting lighting throughout her building. She lived in a historic building in Hollywood, CA. The interior, predominately in the basement where this image was photographed, was made up of parts from around the world, many from Germany. She knew I had received my first degree in history from UCLA where I studied the Holocaust and World Word II. In the basement, there were parts from Germany with the swastika etched into the metal. It was a moment I could photograph two things coexisting together. I could bring to light humanity and someone I loved, and put something that was abhorrent in the dark.

AUTHOR: kiley ames (United States)

I live and work in Los Angeles and Oakland, CA. I received my BA in History from UCLA, a BFA from Art Center College of Design and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art. I've been awarded residencies in Beijing and Shanghai as well as Leipzig, Germany. I have been the recipient of multiple grants including the Barbara Deming Memorial Grant, Leslie T. and Frances U. Posey Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center. In addition to my own studio practice, I was a freelancer at Annie Leibovitz Studio for almost ten years. Recent exhibitions include my first museum exhibition, Figures, at the American University Museum in Washington, D.C., In the Labyrinth, New York University Kimmel Galleries, It Figures: The Body in Art, Arc Gallery, Chicago ILL; States of Reality, Gallery 66, Cold Springs, NY, Postcards from the Edge, Sikkema Jenkins Gallery, New York, One Year of Resistance, The Untitled Space, New York, Facing Contemporary Issues at The Tides Galleries, San Francisco, Purely Abstract, at Kavanagh Gallery, Illinois, Gesture and Motion at Site:Brooklyn, New York, and was selected to create a public work for the Los Angeles Metro, More People Than You Know. I recently published my first monograph, “Fighting the Good Fight: A Breast Cancer Journey.”