All of my art is storytelling.
The stories I create in my photographs stem from personal life experiences and memories. My strongest childhood memories consist of imaginative games my best friends and I would play together. We crafted dramatic and fantastical storylines with specific characters to play pretend with that would extend over many playdates. When we came together again, we would press play again, falling back into a magical world that was removed from life itself.
My staged portraiture work is rooted in this child-like imagination. Making photographs of stories plants the seed to bring the narratives to life – I can create a set of characters that actually exist in my frame. They are often based in a fine line of humor and intrigue. I urge the viewer to examine the connections and interactions each subject has with each other and themselves.
This description is not exclusive to my work with people and rather extends into my landscapes. The landscapes I see are portraits – portraits of objects, houses, abandoned scenes, cars, an open window, a chair on the side of the road. They are portraits of the human presence and experience that exists beyond the edges of the frame.