Statement

Sophie Olmsted moved to Los Angeles in 1996 after studing photography under Larry Fink and Stephen Shore at Bard College. Upon moving to L.A. she commenced a five-year project photographing the Richards, a family of Southern California Gypsies.

“There are no strangers. There are only versions of ourselves, many of which we have not embraced, … and it is the randomness of the encounter with our already known–although unacknowledged–selves that summons a ripple of alarm” - Toni Morrison

SO: These people lived downstairs from me in my first L.A. apartment. They were unusal and I wanted to know more about them. The grandmother was very clear in her interest to explain that they are Gypsies. This is an ethnic group which holds some degree of mystery—particularly in American life. I became close with them and spent five years photographing their life. While this story explores the domestic reality of this family, these pictures also ask demanding questions about our complex relationship to strangers and to ourselves.

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Sophie Olmsted is based in Los Angeles. She contributes to such magazines as Entertainment Weekly and Fortune. For more information, check http://www.sophieolmsted.com