About

As an image maker and photographer, My research focuses on family, memory, and nature with respect, fear, and control as central themes. 

I have lived most of my life in a place that is known for its beautiful landscapes, because of this, I am constantly in awe of nature from its grandiose landscapes to its minuscule intricacies. I am researching as to why I am drawn to these things and why I respect them in the way that I do. The earth is always changing, always in motion and always in control. Spaces like the ocean, forest or mountains, tower over us and their power commands respect from us. Objects, like leaves and foliage can have the smallest veins that mimic the deepest canyon. Connections like these have always amazed me. These perspectives and experiences are humbling and remind me of where I am from and my connection with the earth. I am researching how memory affects space and the impressions that are left by someone or something. The negative space and what we can’t remember fades away and all that is left is the outline or the mark of the experience. What is subconsciously the most important to us is what remains in the memory. Images have the power to manipulate memory, in good ways and in bad, and they have control over how a story is told. I feel a deep, emotional connection with old family photographs and home videos that strongly connect me to my memories and my childhood. Viewing someone else’s memories can be a strange and intimate thing, but I think this intimacy establishes trust with the viewer when discussing matters of family, loss, and memory. This connection on an honest level opens the work up to being viewed less as “my” experience, but more as “our” experience, together as humanity.  By reworking the images and presenting them to the viewer in a way that takes out my personal connection with them, it helps my memories become more relatable and nostalgic to all. Our experience of memory, or of family or childhood, though all different, is a collective experience. My process for researching projects like these includes searching through family photo albums, and watching home videos that focuses on family and memory. I am interested in memory, how we experience it and the traces and echoes memory or people can leave. I am utilizing personal archival images and different materials, such as player piano rolls, alternative photographic techniques and unique papers. I use photography, mixed media and installation art to best convey my concepts in a tactile, experiential way. These choices are made to help bring the viewer into the art by establishing trust with honesty, to experience it rather than to stand in front of it.

Most of my projects are created by compiling images that fit together and building a project from that group. They are also created from an emotion or feeling that I have that I want to communicate and share with others. I like to name my projects with words that do not have direct translations in English, or unique phrases or phenomena. I utilize visualization as a way to envision a feeling, emotion or experience. I think shared experiences and shared emotions, and discussing them are the ultimate unifier and I hope to visualize those feelings and emotions for others.