Charlotte Acevedo comes from a multicultural background. She has traveled all around the world and has an affinity to people and their conditions. Her tastes are diverse and eclectic, yet consistent, and aspires to visualize tandems of existence. Charlotte’s most recognized body of work, Momma and the Grove, is a photojournalistic approach narrating the relationships and hardships faced by her mother while maintaining an exotic fruit grove. This series was among the top 10 finalists (“Los Diez”) for AI-AP’s Latin American Fotografia 2014, and is part of an international traveling exhibition with Epson. Charlotte’s recent interests are expanding beyond photography and video. Her future projects include graphic design, motion graphics, and digital compositing. She graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Momma and the Grove
Momma and the Grove is the story of my mother’s exotic fruit grove, and how this property reticulated a rift between the two women who raised me. Our engagements sprouted in the roots of this land when my late grandfather gave this grove, full of mangoes, guavas, avocados, and cherimoyas, to my mother years ago. Since them, these hallowed fruits have replenished our spirits, yet tainted us with frustration and misunderstanding of each other. Feeling cursed and blessed simultaneously, I am at a precipice in my life. I recognize the biased ideology held behind my grandmother’s concerns of my mother’s chosen, contradicting lifestyle and relationship.
The grove is the product of 30 years of hard labor, hard relations, and hard truths circulated around class, culture, and values. It’s formulated the bulk of my conceptions of the world, and the reason I am who I am. Momma and the Grove explores the relationships between my mother, her boyfriend, and my grandmother, as well as the remnants of my father and grandfather’s influences. These photographs speak to the responsibility I’ve harbored through these recognitions, and my yearning for reconciliation between the two heroes in my life.
To see more of Charlotte’s work, please visit her website.