In my photographs, I try to capture the passage of time. But time is elusive and immaterial, and photography collapses even my long exposures into a single image, of no duration and infinite duration.
Still, when I photograph, time plays an important role: I work on a film camera to slow down and create space for contemplation. That pause is visible in the photographs themselves; figures are seen from the back as they too look. The people themselves–my close family members–are a scale of time and reflect the cycle of a son becoming a father and having his own son.
In the images, time appears geometrically in circles and lines that continue on indefinitely. Envisioned by Greeks and Andeans alike, in the perfect loop of a circle or on roads without beginning or end, time marches on eternally. The cycle of time also relates to the changing times of day. Time is conveyed by light: streaks of light caused by keeping the shutter open, sunrises and sunsets, the duration of a film condensed into a glowing screen, or shadows on the ground functioning like sundials.
Light conveys more than time, too; it also carries emotion. Singular subjects and desolate spaces give us the sense of melancholy and isolation. As the light moves, we stay still.. Pausing to reflect may be beautiful, but it is not always easy.
