noun: a play or part of a play with speaking roles
for only two actors
2017 - ongoing
I love to wander the streets and observe people. My series, Duologues, records fragments of these encounters. It is a play between two images creating meanings belonging to neither— a discovery process each viewer interprets differently. Reminiscent of the idea of synchronicity, an idea that describes meaningful coincidences, my pairings intentionally produce uncanny relationships.
Shooting intuitively and spontaneously, my eyes lock onto the unusual, the outstanding, and even the mundane. Frequently, dramatic lighting shapes the photographs. I collect the unrelated pieces like stems in a wildflower field - disconnected, yet bound together by their place of origin. The visuals seem familiar but particulars will distinguish them from the common.
I match the images by playing a game of Memory: finding in each image shapes, gestures, and symbols that rhyme. The rhyming may occur within the major elements in the image, such as the subject, or in minute details that otherwise might go unnoticed. By pairing two photos that occurred at different moments in time, the story that emerges can bring them together. The final sequence feels deeply connected, even though the encounters on the street were random.
noun: a gradual decrease in speed
2021 - ongoing
Pedestrians rush by, looking past me.
Some stare ahead, hurried, determined, others keep eyes down, locked on digital devices.
Faces and gestures move in and out of focus.
Fleeting moments.
Against a city backdrop of brick walls and construction barriers and advertisements,
this kaleidoscope of color, of people, of movements, blends into a vibrant medley,
a celebration of the urban experience.
Muted music pulses from headphones.
Split seconds.
Individuals walking in a hurried crowd.
On their way to somewhere.
Then, deep breath. Distance.
Rallentando is about the perception and memory of the serendipitous encounters on the city street. In the closely cropped, off-center compositions, peripheral subjects vary in focus, often becoming hazy, blurred. Some movements are sensed more than others, some imprinted in our memories, others instantly forgotton. When sequenced, the fragments, the portraits—captured in different stages of clarity—reveal the fast-paced visual landscape of the city street, illustrating a split moment.
Rallentando, in all its colors—reds, greens, yellows— invites the viewer into an urban symphony that celebrates the perseverance of everyday life.