Project Statement

Disassemble I Series, 2017. 

I remember my father’s and my grandfather’s studios, with their sets, lights and props, selected according to the photogenic qualities, personality and temperament of the person they would be portraying. That was the glamorous world of studio photography that was the art and livelihood of three generations of my ancestors.  But my interest today is in deconstructing the image, undoing the illusion, and giving portraits a new meaning.

As part of my work, for two years I’ve been photographing the same person in various sessions. This helps me to understand the aspects of personality, and simultaneously to see to what extent the portrait is actually a reflection of myself.  Sometimes, for example, I experiment by leaving the set and asking the model to take the photo with a remote trigger. The idea is to see whether when I’m not present my aura disappears from the photographs.

Once I’ve finished editing, I print the photos, and in the process of creating the work I ask each piece of printed paper: “What do you need? What is it that’s missing to visualize something of that vital energy that the portrait subject has?”

The result is this series. In my photographs I knit, I cut off heads, I thread together printed images.