Windows
Artist Statement
I am interested in how memory imprints itself upon the present, human perceptions of the same events and spaces, and subtle distortions that take place between the camera and the photographer. My work is a documentation of truth in our surroundings through the use of landscape photography. Windows—human-made constructions—provide a lens through which the audience views a natural environment. Subtle differences from pane to pane capture shifts in time and nuances of perception. The black space between the images invoke a dark interior place that separate the viewer from where they are not. This separation signifies the filter built by our memories, experiences, upbringing and culture that obstruct or distort our perception. Those elements create our truth, and truth is constructed.
For a year and a half, I explored and re-explored natural areas in and around Tennessee and found that even though I pointed my cameras in the same direction each time I took a photograph, the landscapes presented in the images were no longer familiar. What I’d photographed and what I’d seen were two different things. My experiences in these spaces altered my perception of their reality, revealing that what is observed and the reality of what is seen do not match up. There is a specific way that things exist outside human perception. As an example, the fall season exists, it’s real and brought on by the processes of nature. It may have changed over time, naturally or due to human influence, but it is the way it is. However, I don’t – I can’t – experience the fall season the same way another individual does, and vice versa, because we are all different people. How we are raised, what we experience through our lives, where we live, and even down to basic personality, identity, and individuality differences shape how we are able to see the world. What is true to me about the fall season is not someone else’s truth, but it’s a truth all the same. And those truths separate us from the reality of things, because just like my truth is different than someone else’s, it is also different than the reality of the fall season.
With these constructed images, I encourage the viewer to recognize their own perceptual filters, understand them, and use them to their advantage when experiencing the world around them.
For a year and a half, I explored and re-explored natural areas in and around Tennessee and found that even though I pointed my cameras in the same direction each time I took a photograph, the landscapes presented in the images were no longer familiar. What I’d photographed and what I’d seen were two different things. My experiences in these spaces altered my perception of their reality, revealing that what is observed and the reality of what is seen do not match up. There is a specific way that things exist outside human perception. As an example, the fall season exists, it’s real and brought on by the processes of nature. It may have changed over time, naturally or due to human influence, but it is the way it is. However, I don’t – I can’t – experience the fall season the same way another individual does, and vice versa, because we are all different people. How we are raised, what we experience through our lives, where we live, and even down to basic personality, identity, and individuality differences shape how we are able to see the world. What is true to me about the fall season is not someone else’s truth, but it’s a truth all the same. And those truths separate us from the reality of things, because just like my truth is different than someone else’s, it is also different than the reality of the fall season.
With these constructed images, I encourage the viewer to recognize their own perceptual filters, understand them, and use them to their advantage when experiencing the world around them.