TRIALS

This ongoing body of work translates the physical and mental conflicts of human life into dramatic, uncanny visual stories that arrest with their graphic and mystifying depictions of the body.

Unlike most photography studios, my workspace stands outdoors, year-round, completely exposed to the elements in the beautifully brutal Northern New Mexican desert. The studio’s splintering frames and peeling panels are a testament to New Mexico’s harsh environment and my dedication to creating visually coherent work, but it also metaphorically references the wear and tear on the human body which is often the subject of my photography.

This ongoing body of work translates the physical and mental conflicts of human life into dramatic, uncanny visual stories that arrest with their graphic and mystifying depictions of the body. Photographs from the series show the distortion and toughening of a body battling a degenerative illness. Other images depict the body after it has weathered the conflicts of life and emerged victorious. 

One of my collaborators, Marcia Reifman, an artist and educator was diagnosed with stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma in 2013. During a 13-hour surgery, surgeons removed more than three-quarters of Marcia’s tongue, permanently altering her speech. Sixty-six radiation treatments and concurrent chemotherapy sessions followed the surgery. Another great friend and collaborator, Aaron Garcia, a spiritual nomad dedicated to living outside among the flora and fauna of New Mexico. Both their stories of conflict and suffering are hard-fought triumphs. In Garcia’s case, it is a spiritual victory against social expectations surrounding living standards. In Reifman’s case, it is a bodily victory against a malignant disease. Undeniably, Garcia and Reifman’s stories are harrowing tales of human will and perseverance, and while it can be easy to conflate their stories into a universal theme or message of resilience, I encourage viewers to resist that urge and zero in on the details within the imagery. 

The idea is to streamline all of our individual narratives into a visual record of growth and personal triumphs. In this series, all collaborators (including myself) are depicted as a living memorial, meaning we are using our bodies to perform visual testimonies on events that once happened in our lives. Our bodies serve as personal monuments - representing our dedication to time spent healing, accepting and transforming. This visual record is a tool to enter parts of the collective human experience, in which art is used as closure or a celebration against intense life changes. While each image represents a standalone saga in that individual's life, all the images together build a group portrait of empathy, family, trust and victories. 

It is said that the victors write history; TRIALS is an invitation to celebrate the humanity of these lesser-known champions.