The home is often considered a place of comfort, security - symbolic of family and the internal. In this series of work, I utilize the domestic interior to explore the photograph as a visual metaphor for the psyche. Functioning as ambiguous and coded confessionals, my images describe instances or experiences when the safety of the home collapses. I photograph women, void of distinct individuality, as characters in “stills” from a larger and ambiguous narrative. Set in depersonalized domestic spaces, these fractured narratives represent isolation, anxiety, and despair while utilizing the concept of beauty as an experience rather than condition. It is the concoction of reality and metaphysics, the physical and mental, or of beauty and despair, that ignite passion and a transcendental experience. It is critical that this dialogue takes place-this flux of understanding-so that the singular image works as both contingent and sovereign in context and comprehension.

My current project, Domicile, represents single frames from ambiguous narratives in relation to the absence of comfort, the disillusionment of choice, and terror located in the internal. These photographs employ the formal structure of beauty and the paradox of tragedy: singular female subjects appearing in a haunting despair. The imagery is created intuitively; content is often derived referencing personal struggles with depression and anxiety. These elements have continually inspired the subject of my work over the last several years. Though each image contains symbols of personal reference, my intent is not for a common understanding but for an emotive exchange. In an attempt to create and utilize semiotic codes, the recognizable subject, coupled with illogical scenarios, aid in the attempt to keep the personal hidden, yet allow the viewers to recognize and employ subconscious references. Film theory has influenced the formal approach by means of psychoanalysis, spectatorship, identification of the subject as a mirror, and the concept of presence/absence binary.

Intended to encourage conceptual investigation, the familiarization of the film still works in conjunction with a desire for beauty and identity through a cinematic vocabulary. Through my creation of the mise-en-scene and ambiguous use of the tableau, I choose to only impart a suggestion of the greater narrative. Frequently, mysterious situations allude to facts or events outside of the camera’s frame become integral in the quest to decipher the reality of the situation. Formal considerations to lighting, composition, and size encourage a theatrical experience as an installation. These qualities are not merely contained within the photograph, but in the transition of reality. While these images have personal stories attached, I am particularly interested how the viewer chooses to interpret the scenario utilizing his or her own supply-side psychological references. I have always been attracted to the potential photography has to make a story emotional and real, something the written language leaves more ambiguous. More importantly, I hope my creation of an aesthetic and psychological experience succeeds in the transition of artist to viewer – to welcome and invite interpretations – yet keep them at arm’s length.