The Residue of Memory

The foundation of my work is the photographic process. I often interface it with mark making techniques, using photo emulsion, graphite, charcoal, and oil to blur the distinctions between media. I am intensely interested in how the very nature of what a photograph is changes in the process of this interrogation. My work as an image maker over the past several years has explored a number of issues, but one of my primary themes has been the investigation of two kinds of memory. I use a number of different media to examine the process of recording, recovering, and re-envisioning memory through the photographic process as well as through mark making. Because of its mechanical nature, the camera seemingly captures time and thus renders memory transfixed and static. On the other hand, mark making is an act of imagination, or of recreation and activation in the present. Issues of exile, migration, globalization, and the role of memory in retaining cultural traditions inform this process. The layering of images and media is also a central device in these works. It implies the accretion of history and memory, as well as the competition between “subjective” and “objective” voices for narrative space. What is the role of the photographic medium in relationship to these issues? How can it be negotiated through other media and forms? These are ideas I explore in this series of images.

Utterance

Dreams of Home

Sanctuary

Immanence

Reclamation

Rehearsal

Ferry

Jumbie

Flight

Pulse