Ordinary Miracles, Femme series

These images are studies of ordinary places that are representative of collective ideas about transcending and failing to transcend the quotidian existence of daily life. Apparently prosaic scenes contain cultural signifiers of transcendence from the temporal to the spiritual. Each image is a singular photograph that suggests varying degrees of success or failure to permeate this threshold. They are taken in the documentary tradition, with only minor adjustments in post production, but their subject matter is suggestive of a borderland that exists between mundane and spiritual spaces. The empirical reality of a single recorded moment must necessarily fail to transcend the temporal, just as our outward existence in everyday life must occur in the mundane. Both the camera and our eyes have an inherent limitation to see only the concrete objects before them. This impenetrable threshold is sometimes idyllic and at other times unsettling. These images are representations of ordinary miracles hidden in the landscape of everyday life. The images in "Femme" are one part of the Ordinary Miracles series. They are visual discussions on the experience of being a woman in contemporary society. They are unaltered street scenes depicting objects that communicate ideas about female identity, both as individuals and in the mirror of society’s gaze. Some are voyeuristic, showing female forms unclothed in public spaces that speaks to the objectification of women, while others contain writing, signs and other visual elements that tell a story about how women interact with the world around them in the context of their gender identity. These images are captured with either an iPhone or pocket digital camera in my daily travels, and are not only reflective of my own experiences, but are a momento mori tribute to my mom, who died of metastatic breast cancer, after refusing to get a mastectomy soon enough because she thought that no man would find her attractive as partner if she did so. They are my visual diary of scenes that resonate with me personally as a woman, and are also reflective of collective thoughts of other women and the impact of ideas and cultural stereotypes imposed on women by society. They are reflective of my belief that we as women need to fight against the oppression and objectification of women all over the world in our own small ways.