Photography
My first love was photography, which informed my design mentality, transforming my lens of the world. Two collections of my exhibited work are below.
Layered Eras
Summer/fall 2011
My intention is to capture the delicate balance between growth and decay. I search for layered eras evident in structures where the inevitable process of aging coincides with the human desire to leave a mark.
I aim to present these conventionally disregarded structures in a grand light. Stylistically, I create an interplay between natural textural surfaces and two-dimensional arrangements of lines through flattening deep, complex space. Inspired by the De Stijl movement, I experiment with the relationships between geometric shapes and stick to a neutral palate with isolated bright accents of color.
This collection of images originate from the port city Pireas, Greece and the vacant factory Fulton Gas Works in Richmond, Virginia. The heydays of both locations have come and gone, leaving only the residue of bare foundations, cracked windows, and peeling paint.
In Pireas, the modern manipulations are functional. Residents attempt to make the century-old structures they’ve been left livable. Slivers of Mediterranean color surround windows and doors, and the glaring summer sun ricochets off whitewashed surfaces.
At Fulton Gas Works, the derelict building morphs into a structural wasteland. Transients and partygoers defend territories through graffiti. Remnants of industry and humanity mingle in the dark shadows of the cavernous space.
This series was recognized with an Undergraduate Fine Arts Fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 2013 and multiple national and regional awards at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 2012, including an American Visions Medal. Select pieces were shown at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards' National Exhibition at Parsons The New School of Design in New York, NY and Regional Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA.
MODERN RUINS
SUMMER 2013
These images were taken in vacant factories and warehouses in Montreal, Quebec and Richmond, Virginia. With their initial purposes forgotten, these derelict buildings become stripped foundations acted on by time and creative expression.
The spaces are ephemeral by their very nature. Time tears at their foundations while anonymous artists cover their walls, knowing that from the instant a work is born, it is destined for destruction. Each addition is transient, vulnerable, and subject to the elements, future artists, and law enforcement. Like Bernd and Hilla Becher’s documentation of early industrial structures at the turn of the 20th century, I seek to preserve a moment in these structures’ ever-changing lifetime and pay homage to their typically ignored and atypically beautiful existence.
The buildings have a distinctly mystical and even primal quality. Standing water reflects and multiplies the colorful graffiti, reminiscent of prehistoric cave paintings. Light leaks in through cracked, ivy-covered windows creating stain-glass-like patterns, morphing the hollow high-ceilinged rooms into urban cathedrals. Lone-standing columns and archways evoke images of ancient Roman ruins.
I created this series for my first solo exhibition in 2014, a showcase of my work by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as a Fellowship recipient at the Richmond International Airport. With the generous help of Richmond Camera, the pieces were printed at 3’x4’ for an immersive viewing experience. A couple pieces were later shown and sold at the Visual Arts Center's Young & Artful Benefit Auction in 2016.
