A MODEL HUSBAND

Insprired by the book The Model Wife by Arthur Ollman, A Model Husband is a study of my future husband during our year engagement.

I grew up in a single-parent home – raised by my mother from the age of two. Marriage, as a concept, was an abstraction. Without a concrete understanding of what the institution meant or what it looked like in practice, I said “yes” when my partner proposed. Yes, to an eternal journey I knew nothing about.  Over our year engagement, I took photos of my fiancé – methodically examining him like a specimen. I thought about issues of marriage – identity, independence,
co-dependence, sexuality, domesticity, and fantasy. By studying and dissecting the images, I attempted to sort through the information, make plans and predictions, and weigh evidence in order to form a rational vision of a future I could not possibly comprehend. A Year Engagement chronicles the process that allowed me to gain a better insight into my decision and my partner.