photography
My photography is primarily semi-documentary and artistic, as I work from a semi-reflexive mode of photo-taking that centers on exploring the landscape around me and making use of opportunities for photos I come across combined with pre-conceptualized photos shot in the studio and places I am familiar with. A large portion of my work centers on recording and commenting on the experience of inhabiting spaces, both physical and metaphorical, which in turn leads to this artistic practice. Some other major themes in my work include urban spaces, urban art/art and its environment, wandering, searching, mental health, identity, queerness, and history.
At this time I primarily work in 35mm DSLR digital photography, though I also use 35mm Black & White film and plan to expand to 35mm color film in upcoming projects.
leaving art in public places
Completed
10/23/2023
For leaving art in public places, I collaborated with two sculpture students at Rice to create a mixed materials sculpture inspired by a spider’s web and collaboratively spun by the three of us. We were then inspired to take our creation out into the broader campus to photograph it, and once we hung it up on a tree, we realized that was the spot it was meant to remain. So we left it there, without telling anyone, to add a moment of levity and mystery to passing students, and to see how long it stayed up. (Three days, if you were wondering. Not terribly long but honestly longer than I expected).
transmissions from deep space
Completed
10/15/2023
In transmissions from deep space, I photograph a paper-mâché alien head I made in my senior year of high school in apparently stark, evocative, and otherworldly environments. Through this, I convey a sense of grand adventure for my alien friend, and in turn for myself, as visual references to my spirituality and the emotional bond I have with this trinket through the project it was created for make themselves known in my work.
what’s left behind
Completed
09/13/2023
In what’s left behind, I explore the ability of abandoned objects (specifically chairs on Rice University’s campus) to tell stories and raise questions about how they ended up where they are. In doing so, I create an occasionally humorous study of how people leave remnants of themselves and their days in the environments they pass through.
COWBOY
Completed
04/09/2023
In COWBOY, I use hats, boots, the Galleria, and my body to explore the concept of queer urban cowboy-ism and, through it, the complex dimensions of my own gender. Focusing primarily on combination, both physical (object and object, object and space) and post-processing (arranging images in diptychs and triptychs), I meld a reflexive photo-taking style with a practice of modifying – at least temporarily – the world I inhabit. These modifications physicalize the concept of “queering,” allowing my work to contemplate what it means to inhabit spaces as a queer person. Additionally, the outward projection of this aspect of my own identity opens the door for my work to depict my identity more broadly, turning COWBOY into a self-reflective project that maps my history as well as my relationship with gender.
