The Age of Progress

The years in the early twentieth century leading up to and including WWI hold a particular fascination for me. During that time, great changes were underway politically, socially, culturally, and especially, artistically. Western Europe - particularly Paris, and in the U.S., New York City, were centers of a great movement against conformity within all facets of society. Within the arts, such expressions were manifested in drastic moves against formalism, and towards a more abstract, modernist, aesthetic. With this, a way of making sense of existential ideals was introduced through various manifestos, of which were born such movements as Dada, Futurism, and Surrealism, among others. Within these writings, a new way of thinking about society, culture, and the arts emerged. With the spirit of this time in mind, and with the intentional use of minimalist visual tools very much in keeping with the mindset of the day in photography, with its movement away from the artificialized effect of pictorialism toward a more literal aesthetic, my work here offers a subtle acknowledgment of this period of uproarious societal and cultural rebellion.