Mimesis

In this series, I explore my own understanding and interpretation of identity and the influences that fluctuate, accumulate and compound identity as the work evolves away from photography’s signifying functions. The urge to ask, “what is it?” of this work echoes the question, “what are you?”; a question that I have been asked many times and one that I find increasingly difficult to answer. Reflecting on the perception and presentation of identity informs my approach to photography. I spit on and manually manipulate silver halides in the photographic negative as a representation of the inherent natural and cultural forces in a self-aware and conscious existence. This process produces an image that reveals a certain truth in identity and its inadequacies in language. The abstractions resembling systems of the natural sciences—microscopic, topographic and celestial—allegorizes the complexity of systems that make up an individual and the perception of oneself.