Sarah Hoskins

(b.1961; resides Libertyville, IL)

Family Reunion, 2004

Housing Tobacco, 2005

The Benevolent Sisters: Their 99th Year, 2004

Sarah Hoskins’ ongoing series The Homeplace: Photographs from Historic African-American Hamlets In Kentucky’s Inner Bluegrass Region began in the fall of 2000 as a follow up to a newspaper item she’d read. As word of mouth spread, Hoskins formed relationships and followed a series of invitations into a growing number of communities. A sampling of these introductions include a farmer in his last year of tobacco planting, a church with only four members, and a sisterhood organization 100 years old. Now making six to eight trips a year, Hoskins attends harvests and homecomings, church functions and family reunions alike, photographing the people and practices of communities with deep roots facing the challenges of changing times.

Recognized with Illinois Arts Council Special Assistance Grants in 2004 and 2006, Sarah Hoskins’ work is included in several permanent collections, including the Library of Congress; the Center for Photography at Woodstock; CITY 2000; and the Lubbock Fine Arts Center.

- Kendra Greene

PAST PORTFOLIO

Gun and Hogs, 2002

Lifting Hog to Hang , 2002

Sharpening Knives, 2002

Sarah Hoskins has worked extensively for the past four years in the inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, documenting communities founded by freed slaves. There are roughly 29 of these communities currently identified and more become apparent as the project progresses. As development moves in the communities become threatened, yet the traditions and the people survive. The ways of life founded by their ancestors continue -churches, basket meetings, lodges, social clubs, tobacco farms, and communal hog butchering.

Hoskins attended Columbia College Chicago (BA, 1983), graduating with a degree in photography. She has received grants from the Puffin Foundation (2003) and Ella Lyman Cabot Trust (2004), as well as an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Photography (2003). In addition, her works have been published in Photo District News, American Photography Annual 19, and foto8.com.

http://www.sarahhoskins.com/