The Deconstructed Self

I was motivated to create this body of work after moving from my home of Louisville, Kentucky to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The move occurred at the same time I was entering mid-life and ending a career as a psychotherapist. My identity was shifting and I began to look for a way to express this transition from the "known" to the "unknown". Living in a part of the U.S. with a carefully cultivated and romanticized image made me want to question what was hidden from view, and I began to explore this place and photograph areas that others may find banal or uninteresting. I was curious to discover what was under the surface, and my focus on commonplace architecture and streetscapes allowed me to express something deeper inside myself and also invite the viewer to consider the emotions that accompany times of loss, shifting identities, and reinvention. My experience as a psychotherapist informed my on avoidance - the human tendency to turn away from the parts of ourselves that are uncomfortable or painful to explore. I see my photographs as an extension of this work. These images are a visual expression of a desire to know something deeper about myself through the process of decontextualizing my environment and breaking it down to it's essential elements. Sometimes I get a glimpse of the sublime in these ordinary places - when I do it feels like I have discovered gold.