Please Disturb

Please Disturb takes its title from the ubiquitous door hangers that signal to hotel/motel staff to not bother their guests. However, I want to be disturbed. From check-in to check-out, I use the motel room as a studio. Invited guests visit me in one- to two-hour blocks. Within a space that is both intimate and impersonal, my guests and I talk and collaborate on the images we will make.

More often than not, neither the participants nor I know how the session will unfold. The resulting photographs are a product of concocted stories, shared memories, and crossed physical and psychological boundaries.

Every motel has its own personality and vibe – from the peeling pastel exteriors to the dated, tropical linens. It’s these endearing, flawed characteristics that set them apart from the homogenized chain motels and where I find the most inspiration. The motels serve as several metaphors for this complicated peninsula – aging beauty, dark pasts, secrets and transformation.