EAST HAMPTON, NY.- Guild Hall is presenting the exhibition, A Small Taste of Freedom by photographer Lindsay Morris. This exhibition is on view August 21, 2020 - January 3, 2021 in the Guild Hall lobby gallery.

A Small Taste of Freedom resulted from a collaboration between the artist Lindsay Morris and the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council (GHTAC). Composed of portraits and audio interviews of GHTAC members living under New York State’s “stay at home” order during the Covid-19 pandemic, the exhibition captures the everyday happenings, coping mechanisms, and escape modes of area teens living through this historic moment.

Morris’ series is a true reflection of the challenges teenagers faced as their final months of school, graduation, prom, and other rites of passage slipped away. The project began as a portrait series of high school seniors in their cars, recording the expressions and body language of young people on the cusp of adulthood, with the automobile representing a quest for autonomy and freedom. As spring began and the reality of the pandemic set-in, the adventurous and hopeful narrative of these young people changed.

A simple question was posed to Guild Hall’s Teen Arts Council members: How is Covid-19 affecting you? Their answers regarding family hardships, concerns about academic success, fears regarding our global community, and free-floating anxiety are embedded in the visual and audio material exhibited, but even without accompanying interviews, the facial expressions in these portraits tell a story of loss and uncertainty.




I am awake at 8am to the sound of my little brother reciting the pledge. I finish teaching him first then myself. There are plenty of chores to do since the house is a mess. The ten people living in it are either unemployed or in their closed rooms for distance learning. I realize that home environments are not the same as school environments. I miss a lot of things, and never knowing what to expect the next day. Now I wake up in pajamas and go to sleep in pajamas. - Kathleen Berrezueta, GHTAC member and subject of the exhibition

The car no longer represents a getaway toward an exciting future, but rather a means to escape from stressful and even claustrophobic home lives. In some scenarios, if the weather cooperates, the vehicle takes teens to much-needed, albeit socially distanced, tailgate meet-ups. This new framing of the automobile (or other mode of transportation like bikes and skateboards) as an escape rather than a leap into the future, tells a different story.

The teens pictured are members of the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council (GHTAC). All portraits are shot by Lindsay Morris with Kodak Portra film. All audio recorded and edited by the individual GHTAC Member with readily available devices. To experience the audio portion of the exhibit, patrons must bring their own mobile device with ability to scan a QR code, and a pair of headphones.

Lindsay Morris resides on the East End of Long Island with her husband and two sons. She is a freelance photographer and photo editor of Edible Magazine. In her latest project she is getting acquainted with her immediate neighbors. Lindsay’s work has been featured on BBC World News and published in New York Magazine, TIME, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, GEO, Marie Claire, Elle and Vanity Fair.

Recent exhibitions include ICP, #ICPConcerned Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY, the Hamburg Triennial, Germany, Fotofest, Houston, Photoville Brooklyn, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, and solo exhibitions at Clamp Art, New York, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, and the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO.

Morris is a producer of the 2016 BBC commissioned documentary, My Transgender Summer Camp and has published her first monograph with Kehrer Verlag, You Are You, documenting a summer camp for gender-creative children and their families.
Lindsay began her studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds a BFA from the University of Michigan School of Art.

Curators : Casey Dalene; Curatorial Assistant/Lewis B. Cullman Associate for Museum Ed. Anthony Madonna, The Patti Kenner Fellow in Arts Education