Anya

Anya’s Artist Statement:

My thought process behind this project was taking photos of buildings and areas that were in Madison during the time of roughly 1739 to 1770 and that Theophilus Niger could have seen in his lifetime. My hope was to make the reader wonder what Theophilus saw that we still see now, and to keep them thinking about Theophilus, even if they are just completing errands through Madison.

Firstly I photographed Wildcat Swamp, the land that we assume was given to Theophilus. I also photographed Ms. Lyons' house that Theophilus’s enslavers, Thomas and Abigail Hodgkin, lived in, and Theophilus possibly lived in it too. What was the house like back then? Was it white? Was the stone wall there? How many trees were just saplings when Theophilus saw them? I have a distant and close up shot of the small house that we believe was Theophilus’s house that he owned and lived in with his family; did he look from this point of view down at the Hodgkin house? Was the giant tree there back then, and was it just a sapling? I have a picture of the plaque and the Jedediah Coe house, a man with a close relationship to Theophilus; I wonder if Theophilus ever visited Jedediah’s house and saw the house like we see it now.

Next, by the Madison green I captured the church and house that belonged to the Reverend Jonathon Todd (see info), who was the pastor for Theophilus and Penelope’s marriage. I wonder if they got married in the church. I wonder if that moment was important to them, if they remembered it for the rest of their lives, if they ever met with the pastor again, or if they celebrated their wedding day every year. Along the Madison green, you can see the many houses that I researched on the Madison historical society website, and photographed with plaques that show that they were standing when Theophilus lived in Madison; I wonder if Theophilus saw these houses on his journey into Madison.

Finally, I have a picture of an old sycamore tree, an elm tree, and scion of the charter oak, that are old enough to have been standing during Theophilus’s time. I hope that if you pass any of these buildings or pieces of land while traveling through Madison, they will make you think about Theophilus and his legacy.

A few samples