When Flies Sit Still

When Flies Sit Still is a documentation of the quiet tension that presently exists throughout the US. These medium format photos were made between 2020 and 2024—a period of profound transition. During these years I was transient between various cities and towns across the US via road trip, documenting friends and strangers alike. I was drawn to capturing people who felt similarly to me about the future, simultaneously hopeless and hopeful. I did so because it comforted me, and made me feel less isolated with these fears. Turning these feelings into a tangible reality via photography helped me reconcile with life's current difficulties, and allowed me to process the desires of modern survival. Anna Kornbluh writes, “And yet, hopelessness is not self-identically fatalist; a kind of radical hopelessness that dares refuse the old promissory and progressive logics of capitalist growth could open horizons: it’s not too late—things can still be less worse.” When Flies Sit Still does not offer resolution but instead lingers in the uncertainty, searching for meaning in the stillness, and for resilience in the act of seeing.