Artist Statement

I am interested in the natural landscape as a primary place of human action and reflection. I frequently stage objects or events to exist as single photographs that are part of a larger collection of photographs, resisting the structure and appearance of a traditional photographic series. I also reach to other disciplines such as science, philosophy and history to inform my understanding of the complex connections, and disconnections, many people experience with the natural world.

I often reference events of the natural world and the imagery of geographic maps while looking to the mechanics of map-making as a way to gather, organize and present different aspects of my projects. I find a strong relationship between maps and photographs in that both are relatively accurate, yet entirely subjective. Both are analogs of the world; dressed up to look official, but are secretly stitched together. It only requires a small shift in perception or a turn of the wrist so that north points south and a map becomes a beautiful abstract drawing full of lines, shapes and colors. A loss of orientation renders the visible world as abstract.

In my work I make a habit of literally setting my camera aside and reaching into the world to physically interact with my subject matter. It is at that point beyond the mediation of the camera, when I place my body between the image and its referent that the photograph is porous and reveals its subjectivity. By working within that symbolic space I am able to better investigate a unique quality of the photographic image; that it can present fiction while representing truth. It is this synchronized mutation drifting between a descriptive reality and a constructed reality that resonates within my work.