Rochelle Sumner and Will Kerner, Becoming Plain, 2020, photo series
“The Bonnet Maker is a series of live photographs conceptualized to reveal the narrative of an Old German Baptist Brethren (OGBB) woman who decides to leave her community.”
“In OGBB culture, believers live strictly apart from the outside world, practicing self-denial as well as social distancing from mainstream society. Women conceal their hair and bodies to uphold community values of modesty and rigid gender roles.”
“In the time of COVID-19, people in the U.S. and around the world are covering their faces and physically distancing themselves from each other, similar to the Plain people. The Bonnet Maker will explore the irony of how mainstream society now mimics in some respects the structure of religious sects that set themselves apart, that most of us regard as foreign. In some ways, we are becoming plain.
— Rochelle Sumner and Will Kerner