Angle of Draw

This series examines the intersections of power, capitalism, and whiteness, highlighting how visual representation shapes societal issues and challenges dominant narratives related to the fossil fuel industry's impact on communities and the environment.

Through the lens of natural landscapes and propaganda imagery, Angle of Draw explores the intersections of power, capitalism, and whiteness in the United States. In this series, I draw inspiration from American publicity campaigns and photographic textbooks to create starkly lit black-and-white photographs and collages in the studio and physical landscapes. Throughout my process, I consider the impact of the fossil fuel industry on the natural environment, local economies, and the future prospects of communities left behind by corporations by presenting alternatives to how those corporations frame the negative.

Each collage is crafted using large format cameras and in-camera hand masking processes, allowing for a complex layering of images that mirrors the multifaceted nature of societal issues. The complexities within the collages serve as a metaphor for the intricate relationships between power and ideology, emphasizing how visual representation can either reinforce or challenge dominant narratives. In this series, the camera's ability to selectively focus, crop, mimic, and duplicate becomes an influential tool to censor dissent and promote capitalist and androcentric ideologies. The resulting images reflect how visual framing influences the national imagination and upholds social, political, and economic control systems.