Sculptural

Disseminating photography is such a different animal than sharing artwork through other mediums. For the most part (there are, of course, always exceptions), photographers work with *bodies of work*. When I first started shifting away from commercial work, it was advised that I stop poking around here and there with my imagery and really dig into a project.

And that advice lines up with the industry: nearly every outlet for exposure expects photography to communicate as a series (books, solo exhibitions, web features, even most competitions). This means doing a deep dive into concepts, research and, in my case, letting a body of work stretch out across several years to create something that takes on a narrative form.

Recently, while feeling a bit annoyed by my own repetition of a particular body of work, I realized that I’d become hyper-focused on a particular way of seeing and that it was coloring interactions I had with the rest of the world. In short, I’d grown cynical…of nearly everything…and cocooned myself with existential despair. I stopped creating for the sake of being creative. I didn’t allow myself to simply play or experiment if I couldn’t first build a box rigid with contextual frameworks. I forced my attention to be deep and serious. I wouldn’t let myself fail and that, in and of itself, was a failure.

So, today I worked with some materials I had on hand and tossed my script into the wind. I didn’t sit down to pen project statements, or toss myself down a rabbit hole of research papers & news articles. I had no idea what would come out and I didn’t worry about making it make sense. And, here we are. A few small sculptural pieces that were forged without meaning. Pure expressions from my subconscious.