ARTIST STATEMENT
There have been many twists and turns in creating this collection of photographs, more or less.
After working with different people and ideas, forcing subjects and myself to be what we were not, I stopped! I needed to express something significant but it eluded me. Although I had been engaged for years with portraits and figure study, on impulse I wanted to see what would happen if I submerged flowers in water and froze them. How would the freezing temperature or the puddles of water affect them, would the ice be heavy on the petals, would they die instantly or be preserved?
While watching them slowly melt I began to see a new image emerge without me forcing it. The flowers themselves were in control. They were dancing, moving and coming to life again as the ice turned back to water. Finally lost in my medium, I watched in fascination and documented the changes before me.
In the end, my best work with people in the studio and this new macro study of ice and flowers were merged. They share aspects of line and shape, pattern and color, form and gesture, strength and vulnerability. I found the figures and flowers to be mysterious and seductive when intermixed.
This was a journey of self-discovery. Be it an idea or a way of life, sometimes we just have to let go and trust in the unknown. Allowing the process to work through us and with us without forcing ourselves to be something we are not.
I am a photographer and a voyeur. I see things change before my eyes. Documenting stories is what I do, whether it is about a thawing flower, a singer expressing herself to the world, or a man quietly reflecting on his life; I am merely the messenger, more or less.