Soma

I am interested in anamnesis- the act of remembrance, and the tension between personal history and present life. Traumatic events mark us, change us, stay with us. Though time moves us towards recovery, there often remains a compulsion to act out that which was most painful. I create self-portraits using physical metaphors that speak of ties to time, to the past. These tableaus, symbolic of the affect of trauma on the psyche, contain a character that moves through a dark space and ambiguous environment. The tasks, bindings and contortions affecting the character reflect the interior, unseen workings of the self. My photographic process uses antique processes combined with composites, Photoshop and transparencies, breaking down the boundaries between antique and contemporary processes. Expanding on the theme of time, my image-making workflow mirrors the connection of the past to the present within the photographic medium.