Tabitha Soren is having her first solo exhibition of photographs “Running” at Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles (April 13-May 18, 2013). Although the press release makes a point not to mention her earlier career as a MTV NJ (news journalist, did I just make that up?), the photographer is one and the same, albeit now a full-fledged adult–no doubt even more astute than the ambitious young woman who used to interview Tupac, most memorably just after he was released from prison in 1995.
In the “Running” series, Soren creates and captures staged moments of people struggling to escape (or arrive). At first glance, the images appear cliché. A man running along a train track as if being chased. A pregnant woman (her naked belly exposed) striding in or out of an evangelical looking church. A young bride outside a seedy motel. But then the images provoke questions. Is the bride running or skipping? Is the businessman fleeing the building panicked or about to jump for joy? Soren has clearly considered the difference between escaping from one’s past and arriving at the next destination in life. She knows a bit about transitions.
