Artist Statement
Living and working in California, I am a photo based artist who works largely with found photos / vernacular photography, in order to make new imagery. My archives of snapshots number in the tens of thousands and I draw upon this archive in order to extract found imagery appropriate for producing concept driven outcome (art). Process Statement
Snapshots largely initiate my thought process for making new bodies of work. I draw upon them to either manipulate them, print them or use them in contemporary mixed media pieces.

 

 

I am a photo based artist interested in the balance of provocative imagery and quiet diminutive worlds. I often begin my practice with found photos that I manipulate and experiment with, sometimes contact printing or re-photographing the images themselves. I use the initial snapshots as a conduit, mixing them with new materials that are often in opposition to the anonymous histories of the original photos. The end result is a visually quiet alien world, seemingly sparse and abstract, but simmering with forgotten moments and sinister dreamlike undertones.

Collecting photographs is a vital part of my practice. My archive of found photos numbers in the tens of thousands and all are strategically sorted for retrieval purposes. Because of their seemingly banal content the snapshots are often passed over by others but are selected by me for their simplicity, humbleness and sometimes perplexing nature. Because their makers are anonymous I can assign the images any past or context I see fit.

I experiment with these found images using a multitude of techniques ranging from cyanotypes to photograms and sometimes even simple film captures that result in final gelatin silver prints. When in the darkroom, the actual alchemy of making prints becomes both fascinating and precarious to me. The varying results, based on even subtle chemical or temperature changes can result in unexpected finished images. The possibility for chaos in an environment as controlled as the darkroom adds an element of chance and surprise to the work. And the manipulations in the darkroom coax and tease out hidden truths, showing us the unexpected poetry and lurking darkness of these objects.