My Little Brother

Since leaving home in 2009, I've been going back to photograph my family – specifically my younger brother, exploring his relationship to our father’s memory and his own masculinity. Stemming from an original interest in exploring my family dynamic, photographing at home became a way to understand how grief informed our identities. I started noticing the ways that my mother sees my father in us, transitioning into adulthood and becoming, in her eyes, more and more like him. To her, it seems as if Ben has become a perfect reincarnation, which is both fascinating and haunting. She points out little recurrences in my brother’s behavior and physicality: the veins that stick out in his arms after he works out, the way he walks, and even his handwriting; many of these being actions that he would have never had the opportunity to witness or copy, but has somehow adopted. He himself seems to construct his identity from small clues that my father left behind. In my photographs I am showcasing the ways that he emulates my father's existence, while also confronting him with a viewer – someone to perform for. In photographing him, I sometimes take on a voyeuristic role, bringing my camera to him candidly. Other times I ask him to sit for me and force him to connect with me through the lens. I'm interested in the different ways that he performs, whether it be for my camera or for others in the room. There is a vulnerability that is always present underneath the playful desire for attentio