earchive

Hi hi! this earchive is an ongoing project of mine that lives both in book and exhibition form. Though I generally showcase them at 32x40 inch in the gallery they are flexible with scale. thank you for your consideration.

earchive is an ongoing photographic archive composed of portraits I have taken of ears. These portraits taken within the last year include the ears of my family, friends, bar flies, peers, men, and acquaintances. I first became infatuated with making these ear portraits after a photo session with my parents where I was photographing close ups of their various body parts. During this session I took a straight on close up image of my fathers ear and became so enamored with the strangeness of this isolated ear that I decided to continue this mode of image making. Since then I mimicked the same rough dimensions and framing of that image with the various new ears. This was the birth of the earchive. 

I am fascinated by how these images of ears start to take on an abstract landscape form as the textures, hairs, wrinkles, and accessories begin to mingle together. The images flatten out the proportions of the face giving no clear start or beginning to features aside from the ear form. They feel extremely intimate and force myself and the viewer to both wonder who this ear belongs to and also forces us to think about if we know anyones ear by memory. I am printing the images of ears larger than life to both confront you with something usually so small and discreet in order to change the viewer's bodily relation to this human feature.  

each ear in this series is printed at 32x40 inches and either adhered directly to the wall or onto wooden panels of unique thickness.