My work spawns from a deep seeded fascination of humanity. The versatility and individuality of our human species called me to explore what it is that causes each person to appear as they do. Every person has their own unique experience in life, and it is these experiences which define who that person. These are reflected in their body language and appearance, revealed through the molding and sculpting of the genetic base. In order to show these reflections of experience in the identity of a person, I at first utilized a diptych, juxtaposing the human face in portrait with a depiction of one of their experiences.
These close-up portraits focused primarily on the minute details of the human face, thinking that this would give the most intimate and revealing notion of who the person was. Yet as I continued making these photographs, I began to see that it was not just the face that could give insight into their identity, and both together serve to reveal an accurate picture of their individual identity. The situational experience in the diptych format served to reveal one facet of the many that are compiled during the human life to create the details of the body for human kind.
This approach began to morph as the project continued. People are most intimate in the most common situation, the mundane habits of their daily lives. It is during these particular points that the identity could be shown and compared in direct juxtaposition to what shaped it. It is at this time, that the human identity seems so closely intertwined with the experiences gained during existence that a portrait that combines both a depiction of the person in a definitive posture or gaze, as well as a revealing picture of their surroundings and actions, can also serve the same purpose as the diptych did. I think that this body of work serves to give an insight into the intertwining nature of both identity and experience and gives evidence to show that these two cannot be separated.
