Many photographers have documented American life. Some focus on either the personal or the public. I combine images from both of these realms to draw out the complex conversation between intimacy and distance.
In the exhibition “Mirrors and Windows” John Szarkowski said “There is a dichotomy in contemporary photography between those who think of photography as a means of self-expression and those who think of it as a method of exploration.” With the definition of mirrors referring to introspective images and windows to the outside world, my images function as both of these. The people and objects I photograph operate between the personal and the universal. My subjects are part of a lower economic class. By including images that are personal, my work goes beyond merely talking about this particular economic class but addresses a way of life. My photographs serve as a document of my life and more broadly the environment in which I live.
2011