Edge of Chaos

The photographs in “Edge of Chaos” were taken at sites in a borderline state between order and disorder. I discover haphazard scenes and compositionally orchestrate the random assortment of objects in an attempt to recognize and record the emergence of a surprising underlying cohesive whole. “Fission” explores the coming apart of man-made structures either by demolition, dismantling, or natural disasters – sites that had a pre-existing order but are now in a state of disarray. The pictures of building demolitions document a lost era of New England town centers. The dismantled factories speak to the disappearance of jobs and industries from a bygone era while the photographs of natural disasters emphasize the power and devastation of the forces of nature. “Fusion” examines the coming together of objects. Images of scrap metal heaps and discarded possessions comment on our consumer society. Despite this wide range of subject matter and theme, what ties the pieces together is the tenuous state of the scenes, the sense that compositional cohesion is being stretched a bit. From the mass of randomness, the rubble, the collection of rusty engine parts, the disassembled machinery, a dense canvas emerges. At the heart of these photographs is my attempt to recognize an unexpected elegance at sites generally thought to be aesthetically barren, to hear the music buried beneath the noise, to discover those mystical, magical moments found at the Edge of Chaos.