In Range

At its surface, my ongoing project In Range is a documentation of objects I find at open shooting ranges - improvised targets that have been abandoned, leaving traces of their previous owners. I treat these objects as sculptural material, photographing them on-site as if I were in the studio. The choice of targets reveals a pleasure in destruction that I find simultaneously understandable and disturbing. Most disquieting are the objects that were once alive, or that seem to serve as proxy for flesh – the wound in the globe of a cantaloupe, a mangled Polaroid, the leftovers of a game carcass. Drawing on the real as well as the implied, I work to connect the present fact to the histories of violence in the United States. Though there are clues to their identities, I avoid photographing the shooters themselves. In the absence of specific demographic context, I aim to inspire more nuanced conversation that expands on the standard battle lines. I want to imbue the viewing experience with a similar tension as is inherent in the activity itself, where aesthetic pleasure is tempered by implicit violence.