In 2015, there were twenty-six Planned Parenthood clinics in Ohio. Jared Thorne, who had relocated from South Africa to teach at Ohio State University, photographed all of them as a way of introducing himself to the psychological, sociological, and literal landscape of Ohio. Over the course of a year, the artist drove to every community, small and large, that had a clinic. Many photographs were made at first light, the only time that anti-choice protesters, as well as staff and patients, were not present. Alone, he would set up a large-format camera, using 4×5-inch chromogenic film to create his desaturated and depopulated images. Thorne’s formally balanced and exquisitely focused images are designed to read as studies in decontextualization. This type of context camouflage is also part of the portrait of place: Planned Parenthood buildings are not designed to stand out or to make themselves a target.
A project that was started a decade ago in part to quietly recognize the essential work of this bedrock of healthcare has, with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, become something else: an act of memory, a monument to a world slipping away faster than we might have reckoned. Since its start in 2015, Thorne’s project has evolved as he now seeks to photograph every remaining Planned Parenthood facility in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. As the project nears completion, he plans to create a book that will serve not only as a document, but as a catalyst for discussion about gender, race, and class within the American landscape.
