Michael, an exhibition by Dodd Fellow in Photography Forest Kelley, is currently on view at the 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia.

Michael imagines the history of gay men living in rural New England in the epoch between the Stonewall Uprising in 1969 and the death of Rock Hudson by AIDS in 1985. More specifically, Kelley traces the experiences of his uncle Michael, an artist whose adult life was bookended by these landmark events in queer history. Michael was found dead at the base of a rock ledge—a presumed suicide—on June 14th, 1985, shortly after the first test for HIV antibody was licensed by the Food and Drug Administration in March 1985. 

Forrest writes:  "This work desires answers but its preoccupation is with the unknowable, with visualizing the memories, dreams, speculation, hopes, and fears that continue to resonate in his family and community. It is an attempt to do exactly what I cannot: to be alive within all of the trappings of another’s subjectivity and to illustrate internalized images with external ones."

Michael was previously at the Suite and Plaza Galleries in the Lamar Dodd School of Art. 

The exhibition will be on view until June 9.

Kelley received an MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in Social Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. For the past three years, he has taught photography, digital art, and time-based media at institutions including Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Rochester, and Syracuse University. His work has been shown nationally at galleries including Clamp Art (New York City) and SF Camerawork (San Francisco). Kelley currently curates Hardigree Hall, an exhibition space at the Dodd that seeks to expose students to emerging critical voices within contemporary photography while activating a dialogue that privileges diversity and values photography’s inherent proximity to social engagement.