work with found photographs

When I collaborate with another’s photo, I tease out a common humanity not confined by time, place or circumstance. I explore our shared human experiences to better understand my own. In 2001 during my last semester in grad school, I began accumulating found vernacular photographs — my archive now exceeds 70,000 — primarily snapshots and studio portraits. Stitching by hand is a laborious, time-consuming process that provides me a satisfying, meditative intimacy with these mechanically-captured moments of unknown people’s lives. There is a richness in vernacular photos whether or not we know the person, place or time. By asking viewers to look carefully — to react to quotations, decipher symbols and signs, and/or puzzle out juxtapositions — I renew and transform their experience of looking at old photographs. By engaging them with other people’s family photos, I alter the way they see their own. They come to realize, as I did, how universal this form of expression is — and how precious.