Mary beth Meehan documents a city’s evolution

By GREG COOK | November 28, 2012

Meehan's purposeful ambiguity turns the images into Rorschach tests — or boobytraps — for racial and class-based stereotypes. Our reactions can tell us something about ourselves — if we're self-aware enough — but I keep wanting to know who these people really are and what is really going on.

Meehan began the project to help herself figure out and navigate her hometown's seismic shifts. But via community forums and public exhibits (including enlarging several of them into banners and displaying them on Brockton buildings over the past year), the goal has expanded to helping Brockton better see itself. Ultimately, it's about how this understanding can foster a more harmonious, more vital community. So knowing what's really going on in the photos matters. Because we need help getting past our assumptions and biases, to really understand the situation, the bad and good, if we're going to do this community thing better.

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Topics: Museum And Gallery , Brockton, Rocky Marciano, Wheeler School, More

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