Artist Statement

A well know proverb tells us to walk a mile in someone’s shoes in order to understand them. The project Kindergarten Shoes is my attempt to photographically “take a walk” in the shoes of Kindergarten children. It was made possible with help from the twenty-one children in my daughter’s Kindergarten class.

I began by arranging a day to photograph the children. Parents were asked beforehand to help their child select a pair of shoes that had special meaning to them. Several weeks later, I sat down with each child and asked them to tell me about their shoes, prompting them with questions like: Why did you choose that pair of shoes for the image? What do you like about your shoes? And, what do you like to do in your shoes? The answers they gave accompany the individual images of the children’s feet in this gallery.