Assorted Boxes of Ordinary Life

The photographs in the series Assorted Boxes of Ordinary Life were inspired by a small box of photographs, documents and objects given to me following the death of a distant relative. Having heard stories about this person's life, (a war vet, retired autoworker, widower and recluse, from Windsor, Ontario) I was interested in some of the factual evidence found in the box, yet the contents instigated a plethora of questions about identity and how it is comprised of both fact and fiction. Working with this tiny archive instigated an inquiry into my own childhood collection of super-8 film, I explored and blended the stories represented - suggesting new narratives from the minimal details provided. To provide a bit of background information, the photographs were taken from super-8 film that I projected onto a collection of found mirrors. The resulting imagery focuses our attention on certain elements while occluding others, which questions the truth in photography, and the fictions inherent in our perception. As viewers, we might be able to draw inferences from subtle visual cues-a gesture, an object, an expanse of negative space-I play with these elements leaving room for the viewer to project, to imagine, to forget. When experiencing these remnants, which have been extracted from their moment in history our understanding is informed more by our own stories than by those of the depicted. Where does the viewer, reside in this work, if at all? Throughout my work, I reference the history and technology of photography, often playing with specific "tools" in this case, light and mirrors. The dust on the mirrors plays with the reflections and alludes to the notion that we are all made from stardust and to that we will return. In addition to the photographic elements of this work, I focus on the found objects through installation. Each object is capable of instigating a response from the viewer, even without the factual evidence elucidated. We are the stories.