Fifteen years ago, a therapist suggested Tricia Rainwater explore self-portrait photography as a way to process early childhood abuse. What started as a therapeutic practice gradually evolved into the foundation of her work as a multimedia artist — or, as she describes it, “creating an archive of [her] life.”

“I started to really unpack a lot of my own trauma, to look at it and piece it together,” Rainwater said. “I was able to look at a photograph, and be able to take a step back to look at it as an object that I was sorting out. Through that, I was able to process a lot of the pain and move past it, through it.”

Now, Rainwater’s work has come to life in her first solo exhibition, The Tellings We Keep, currently on view in the SF Camerawork gallery at Fort Mason through Nov. 29. The exh

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