Semaphore

2019-present

 

Archival pigment prints

13” image on 17”x17” paper, edition of 6

20” image on 24”x24” paper, edition of 3

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Semaphore examines the shift in my perspective after having been diagnosed seven years ago with Parkinson’s disease. Through images, I consider what it means to integrate this life-altering information into my sense of self. What does acceptance look like?

 

Post diagnosis, everyday items and experiences take on new meaning. New tasks top my “to do” list each day. Simple tools now present a challenge. Uncertainty pervades the periphery surfacing my vulnerability. As I look around me, the branches of trees become networks of neurons or resemble tendons in my wrist imaged by an MRI. Acknowledging these signals facilitates the process of adaptation.

 

Optimism holds the key for me right now. Light, always an inspiration, illuminates a path for me to follow. And I go. 

 

This year I am publishing a book of this project with Kehrer Verlag. The 96 page book includes 67 images, and an essay by Rebecca Senf, PhD, Chief Curator at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

 

Parkinson’s disease is now the world’s fastest growing brain disorder. Currently, over ten million people live with Parkinson’s worldwide. While this project and forthcoming book are relevant to the Parkinson’s community, they also connect with others whose journeys require growth, patience, and perseverance to move forward.

 

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Common Ground

2015-present

 

Archival pigment prints

18.25” edition of 10, 28.5” edition of 5, 40” edition of 3

5 prints reserved for custom size orders

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Can we connect to the past and future by way of image-making? I am inspired by a perceived connection to the history and future of experiences lived on the shared common ground of public parks and gardens. 

 

I title my landscapes with the GPS coordinates from which each photograph was taken. The images, anchored by the data of longitude and latitude, are my subjective response to that specific location and time. Picturing one of a myriad of possible views from that point, the images emphasize the unique experience of person and place. In turn, the coordinates and images chart my individual journey in these public places. Locations represented here include the Tuileries in Paris and Waveny and Irwin parks in New Canaan, CT.

 

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Road Works

2007-2015

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C-prints 

18.25” edition of 10, 28.5” edition of 8, 40” edition of 3

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Having moved to Connecticut from New York City years ago, I spend much of my time driving. Whereas I used to people-watch while walking in the city, in Connecticut (the suburbs) I focused on the road. When noticing a skid mark, I would wonder what circumstances created it. This curiosity was no doubt linked to the death of my father, who fell asleep at the wheel of his car when I was a child. Many years later I visited the crash site but saw no trace of the accident.

 

An exploration of marks on roads Road Works looks at the road as a palimpsest--an accumulation of traces from journeys traveled, nature's impact and public maintenance.

 

The Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates in each title mark the point from which each photograph was taken--indicating that it is one view from that point on Earth. As these road marks reflect the prior actions or events that created them, similarly my negative and print record my per- spective. Recognizing my fantasy that there would be evidence possibly marking my father’s exit from this world led me to look at roads in a different way—to see roads themselves as road signs and to read their marks as metaphors.

 

 

 

Functional Ground

2002-2007

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C-prints 

18.25” edition of 10, 28.5” edition of 10, 40” edition of 3

 

At the crossroads of Gretna and Melville sits a dairy farm. In the series Functional Ground, I explore the visual terrain of this working farm and the surrounding roads and fields. Shooting with a shallow depth of field and often at ground level, these images draw the viewer’s attention to the specific details of the scene—to the microcosm within this ecosystem.

 

Science and technology have given us new ways to catalog our world and our whereabouts. Each image in this series is titled with the date and the Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates of the point from which it was photographed. Using this data emphasizes the connection between the interpreted image and the physical source. While the images show a natural environment marked by human use, the GPS coordinates refer to my tracks as I photograph this environment. 

 

Each image while precise in it's selective focus and coordinates, reflects one of an infinite number of views from that point emphasizing the unique experience of person and place. With the coordinates providing a skeleton, these images together create a subjective portrait of a place.

 

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Selections

1998-2002

 

C-prints 

18.25” edition of 10, 24” edition of 10, 40” edition of 3

 

The camera lens makes it possible for the eye to see variations of focus.  In this series of images I use shallow focus to highlight selected elements over others. This technique influences the viewer’s sense of space, texture and scale within the frame. The elements in soft focus tend to recede and fall beyond the reach of vision or memory.  In contrast, the sharply focused elements anchor the image and come forward.

 

Creating new visual relationships between the forms inside the frame allows me to transform what I see physically into a representation of my sensory experience. Taken of nature and other familiar subjects, these photographs both reference and confuse the viewer’s prior knowledge, requiring more associative than literal interpretation.

 

 

Traces 

2003-2013

 

Archival pigment prints

Image size 10.5”x14” or 10.5”x15.75”, print size 16”x20” or 21.75”, edition 5

Image size 18”x24” or 18”x27”, print size 24”x30” or 33", edition of 5

Image size 26”x35” or 26”x39”, print size 32”x41” or 45”, edition of 3

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“Memory believes before knowing remembers…”  

William Faulkner, Light in August

 

Trace elements may only occur in small amounts but are essential to life.  The childhood moments depicted in Traces focus on the brief instances of exploration, growth or transition in everyday life – experiences distilled into single images that are uncovered through the viewer’s frame of reference or understanding. Observant of the innocence and wisdom of children, I endeavor to document their journeys – no matter how big or small.