THREAD - a love letter to Indianapolis
“ We are all connected by an invisible thread. Our experiences are unique, yet we share such a basic need. We long for a space to tell our story and to listen to others tell theirs. Thread is devoted to sharing these stories. This is documentation of the very fabric that connects our community. This is our love letter to Indianapolis.” --T H R E A D
Bright-eyed two year old Ruben Reynolds is full of delight as he skips into the gallery, sippy cup and rotating favorite toy in hand, trailing his mama, Indianapolis photographer, Amanda Reynolds. Amanda and her husband moved to the Herron Morton neighborhood a few years ago with a desire to experience all that downtown living had to offer. Of course, they loved the proximity to great amenities like the Children’s Museum and the many city parks, but their real desire was for Ruben to grow up with neighbors . . . all different kinds of neighbors, to see people every day who were different from him and like him. Downtown Indianapolis is a lot like an unusually diverse small town. People live close to each other and they know each other, for better or worse. Most of the year, neighbors start to gather outside as people start arriving home from work. Neighbors walk their dogs, kids ride bikes or scooters down the sidewalk, and others pick up trash, weed the front gardens, or just sit on the curb and chat.
Amanda, fellow photographer Ryan Hunley, and others wanted to celebrate the everyday moments of being a neighbor in this city, and so they created a beautiful project aptly titled “THREAD -- A Love Letter to Indianapolis.” They want to capture the stories of the people, places and passions that create this city’s beautiful fabric, the threads that connect “one heart, one neighborhood, one generation to another.” The result is magical.
For this month’s City Gallery show, THREAD photographers took pictures of King Park neighbors’ hair, “one of the many threads that connects our community and shapes our identity.” The collaborators keep exploring other ways we connect. “As a part of an ongoing series,’Still Spaces,’ THREAD is capturing the unique havens around the city we retreat to in search of tranquility.” Look for their fine art book “THREAD - A Love Letter to Indianapolis,” currently at press, available soon, and come connect to each other, those who are like you and different from you, and to the greater Indianapolis story, here at the City Gallery tonight.