The impulse to make a photograph begins with a drawing made from references of history, art, a person or a thought. This drawing is the codex of a search involving people and elements combined in often disparate ways. This physicality is then recorded through a camera. The exposed film is developed, resulting in a strip of twelve sharp negatives. I then choose one negative which I scratch and cut into. I do not collage or superimpose.
I work alone during printing and begin by communicating with my equipment and chemistry, thanking them all in advance. I place a negative in the enlarger and the darkroom becomes a kind of holy house, a refuge for phenomena. After the negative image is brought to size and focus, tissue is placed over the enlarging paper and sprayed with mists of chemicals and water; this part of the process occurs in darkness. While making the exposure, I press upon and often tear the tissue, creating a fusion of tones and spaces within the image.
After receiving exposure, the paper is placed in chemistry which develops the image and allows it to be seen in the light. During this time, I change the image by use of additional marking on the negative, exposure, diffusion or chemical treatment of the paper. By the esthetic use of these agencies which at times takes days to complete, I expand the visceral impact which originally occurred in front of the camera. The final event is the print. A toned and archivally treated image I can replicate, in which the form of the subject and the subject's context are transcended into an idealized formality possessing an esthetic language which engages profound emotional dichotomies within the viewer. And having touched that place, my hope is not only to show the insanity of our lives, but also that this work will be seen as part of the history of diverse and desperate times.
AND, DEATH
I have consecrated my life to changing matter into spirit with the hope of someday seeing it all. Seeing its total form, while wearing the mask, from the distance of death. And there, in the internal destiny, to seek the face I had before the world was made.
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