Photographs are strange entities. They are considered by many to represent “truth” and to be documentations of reality. If they are, then why do we perform before the camera within a set of conventional poses? Why do images of ourselves need to read that we are “always happy” or “perfectly normal”? Of course, it is because this is the way we want to be remembered. But these poses, in fact, are only a temporary disguise. We don’t want any discontent documented because we don’t want others to judge us based on such a brief moment in time. We are taught to smile as though our lives are spent in a mist of pure pleasure and we continually beam for the camera as if that will erase any discomfort in our present lives. In this world of artificial poses and sometimes unnatural smiles we live so successfully disguis
This body of work defies the traditional view of portraiture, using staged situations to convey an idea of individual identity. My subjects, who are my family, choose how they would like to represent themselves, as well as how they would collectively choose to represent the other family members. They are sincere, considered documentations as told through a staged image – a photographic fiction that tells a personal truth.