An aspect of my practice is research-based and not part of a distinct project or collaboration. I still consider this work collaborative or socio-cooperative, but where I affect the image with more weighted influence. I explore power dynamics with land, plants, and non-human animals. I also think more intentionally about voyeurism when photographing people. I recycle media and record experiences or interactions with which I come into contact. Instances that usually evoke something and I respond with a camera or in-kind media. I explore the extractive reality of the shutter: how the camera extracts something that exists in real time and space, flattening it into a two-dimensional image or representation. Meanwhile, I consider the collaborative nature of the technology and its possibility for relationship development.
I’m interested in the motivation or desire to keep, hold, or preserve something. And, how the process of a film-based camera functions differently, through a slower physical process, compared to a digital camera or a cell phone - how the reproducibility of an image comes easy, maybe naturally, with digital cameras. I lean heavily into my practice with film photography based on my own experience and theories behind these questions. I prefer the slowness of film and how I have less control of the image outcome.
