Artist Statement
The widespread use of photography in the last century has led to an anxiety surrounding the documentation and preservation of life's fleeting moments, and has served as a catalyst for the cultural phenomenons of visual identity/image construction and comparison. Creating memories, and thereby identities, whether by doing or by documenting, is an intrinsic part of contemporary life.
In my work, I draw on the tradition of the photographic tableau, in which a scene is specifically constructed for the camera. My images explore the coexistence of self and performance within the individual, and those of the seemingly eternal and temporal components of a given moment.
I often compose my images in a manner reminiscent of family snapshots. I try to give the viewer a sense of the familiar, yet make my photographs strange at the same time. My subjects appear to step out of themselves or their time periods. I hope that this method of image making will cause the viewers to likewise step out of themselves and then truly see themselves.