Scene Portraits (2005-2007)
→ View Gallery
Occasionally I have a moment when reading a good book where my mind moves from being within the page to feeling ‘external’. I sit on my shoulder for a fraction of a second watching myself read. Becoming external is just as likely to happen for me in a cafe or bar, shifting to a fly-on-the-wall vantage point. A flash goes by where I see the entire scene unfold around me.
One evening in a bar it was from here that I noticed a cultural peculiarity worth a closer look. I began asking myself, where does a city’s nightlife come from? I see an incredible collection of individuals, but what are their motivations and why do they commune? Is it for the rush of a few drinks? Do they come to check out a cool band? Are they here to watch people and listening to their stories? We could just as easily sit on the couch at home, beer in hand (at half the price) and watch Law and Order. So what’s the deal?
In varying states of psychology and inebriation, many, if not most people go out for the same reasons. We implicitly seek the comfort of company in numbers, for the peripheral connection with a friend, a friend of a friend, or the cute girl/guy across the room. Within this energized and dynamic environment exists a universal oddity during the evening where, not unlike the notion of being ‘external’, we break away and relocate ourselves. Whether for a smoke, a moment of quiet, or to calm down the friend all worked up about their ex’s new fling. We step outside.
Medium: 4×5 postive color film, pigment inkjet prints
Illusion/Elusion – SMFA Masters Thesis (2004-2005)
→ View Gallery
→ Watch Video
Why do outdated technologies proliferate in mainstream culture? As a member of the first generation of videogamers , my body has grown proprioceptively comfortable with its on-screen counterpart. Interactive experiences of the past, once difficult, are now navigated with ease. Physical and mental reference points have been created.
We have evolved, yet still return to earlier virtual experiences sometimes bent by the interference of distorted memory. Illusion / Elusion is an exploration of these nostalgic fascinations through elementary interactions with an Atari2600-based system.
Medium: Atari gaming systems, electronic circuitry, video, steel, plastic, acrylic
New Breed (2003-2004)
→ Watch Video #1
→ Watch Video #2
I have always been fascinated with science fiction novels and film. These entertaining narratives have become fertile ground for reflecting our technological and psychological dreamscapes – culturally rich, yet often taken for granted, the construction of abstract visual devices and stage props play off our collective fascination with unknown oddities. Take, for instance, the familiar arrangement of zapping and beeping instruments seen in the canonized “inventor’s laboratory”.
In the stages between idea and fabrication exists a representation of human curiosity. New Breed inserts my own narrative tangents into these scientific fantasies.
Medium: electronic circuitry, steel, glass, plastic, rubber, vinyl, fabric, wood
Yardscapes (2002-2003)
→ View Gallery
Owning land, and its implied liberties, has always been an essential part of the American Dream. The resulting development of suburbs, and subsequently the idea that every family could own a home, created a unique cultural trend in which a yard is no longer a reflection of a building but of its occupants. As this space became divided over time through development configurations and street planning, the front yard – unlike the private and more personal back yard – quickly became the doormat landscape.
This front yard has thus become each person’s pallet upon which they welcome the public. While some homeowners go to great lengths in decorating their plots with statues, flowers, and flags, others are satisfied with a weekly visit from the landscaper. From a neo-folk-art perspective I believe we can gain insight into the lives of homeowners by interpreting this very basic relationship.
Medium: 35mm film, silver gelatin prints
Urban Remains (2000-2001)
→ View Gallery
Urban Remains represents an exploration of an industrial landscape. It is a journey into photographic abstraction and realism. While a wider perspective may be an unaltered window into our city, the finer view develops its own context of anonymous urban living. In bringing this interpretation of the urban environment to the viewer, I sought subject matter that spoke of the relationship shared by a city’s landscape and its inhabitants, bringing attention to the places void of their presence yet marked by their passing. It is in these places that we find captured glimpses of a city’s tensions in history and presence, solidity and movement.
Medium: 4×5 BW film, silver gelatin prints
Worcester by Night (1999-2000)
→ View Gallery
As a photographer of our environment and its conditions, I am drawn to places I love simply for the joy of watching them change over time. These changes may happen across seasons and years, but also across hours and minutes. Night photography highlights the constant transformation of our environment. Slowly passing through the camera’s shutter, light produces streaks, blurs, ghostly objects; evidence of motion.I can trace my enchantment with night photography to one particular evening. It was a warm February day and a snowstorm just passed through Worcester, MA.
One of those long storms piling ice upon snow upon ice as the day’s temperatures changed. That night a deep fog settled into the city as temperatures rose. Everything slowly melted, evaporating into steam. Outside the streetlights echoed off the ground and air until one could read in the full of night.
Medium: 4×5 BW film, silver gelatin prints
Early Landscapes (1998-1999)
→ View Gallery
A well-traveled hike is like visiting old friends. Greeting the trailhead with a handshake, you enter the familiar woods. A part of your insides tips a hat to the twisted stump and silently flowing swamp as you pass along your way. Of our many daily acquaintances, only a few become good friends through the span of time as we discover their individual personalities and characteristics. This same relationship holds true with our environments. We grow close to terrain that opens itself to us and to which we have opened ourselves.These photographs represent a collection of memories that I bring back from old friends. I have traveled their terrain many times.
Through these photographs one can peek into a close relationship, much in the same way a person might open another’s diary. My vision as the photographer changes when faced with familiarity and can be seen here. Images of the obvious fall to the side and my eye is instead attracted to the more abstract visual qualities that speak of the subject’s subtle personality traits. As opposed to being captured by the entire forest, I may instead feel the attraction of one tree’s peeling bark.
Medium: 4×5 BW film, silver gelatin prints
