Pamela Connolly

WISHMAKER | As a child, I spent endless hours roaming the maze of rooms in my parents' "Ethan Allen" furniture store. The shapes and patterns that filled these constructed spaces became imprinted in my consciousness. Even our family home growing up was a replica of a fantasy, a duplicate of the store, a stage selling hopes and dreams.

Much of my photographic work is in response to these childhood impressions. Through furniture, spaces, and interior decoration, I have been exploring the themes of home, childhood, aging, and the yearning between the imaginary and the real.

Confined to my house during the Pandemic, I immersed myself in a project photographing 1960's litho-printed tin dollhouses. These toys were designed and marketed to baby-boomer girls growing up in the many suburbs across the US. Printed on the walls of these miniature houses are illustrations of the elements necessary for a successful, fulfilling life: red geraniums on the kitchen window, coordinated curtains, tasteful artwork, rose-covered arbors… Included in the box, colorful plastic furniture and fixtures to complete the fantasy.

A dollhouse is a microcosm of hopes and dreams, the pocket female fantasy. Although I did not own one of these tin dream houses growing up, they are of my own childhood. I can't help but observe that the backgrounds are rendered in the same aesthetic as my parents' furniture store and home. Peering through the windows like an oversized Alice in Wonderland, I roam through these tiny spaces with my camera, transported back in time to a childhood that took place in showrooms and dreams. www.pamconnollyphoto.com