FIXING A SHADOW

Fixing a Shadow is a collection of unique silver gelatin prints that examine the nature of photography itself. I bypass the camera to work directly with light sensitive material, and in doing so, physically contact the moment and subject of capture. Found archives, ephemeral material, and embodied experiences play an integral role in my methods of image making. Using my hands and my shadow, I interact with my material and exaggerate the contrast of what photography can reveal and hide. What remains is the unique residue of an action or meditation in which subject and process are one. Reflections on time and memory guide a formalist intuition, as I engage with the phenomenon, materiality, and illusion of photography.

With the present-day dependence on images, camera phones, and social media, I feel an urgency to reflect on the origins of photography, why we are compelled to record our lives, and how this influences experience and memory. With his invention of one of the early “photogenic drawings,” Henry Fox Talbot marvels at the discovery and poetically describes his process as  The Art of Fixing a Shadow. With a similar sense of wonder, I return to this early desire to capture our fleeting shadows and investigate our shifting relationship with photography.