I am drawn to Mexican and Guatemalan cultural objects—masks, carved wooden animals, papier mâché figures, and toys. On trips to southern Mexico and Guatemala I frequent local mask shops, markets, and bazaars searching for the figures that will later populate my photographs. How, why, when, and where these objects come into my life is an important part of the process. I take very old objects with a unique Mexican or Guatemalan past—most have been used in religious festivals—and give them a second life, so to speak, in New York in the present. When I return home I read prodigiously and find out as much about them as I can.
The chromogenic prints in the Gods and Monsters series are experiments in which I relinquish control. Basic picture-taking techniques, like focusing and composing an image in the rangefinder, are abandoned. I use film and eschew digital manipulations in both shooting and printing the images. I photograph through colored plastic gels to add shapes and colors, to abstract and otherwise render details unrecognizable, and to create dreamlike scenarios. Each image is an unrepeatable surprise. Always I am letting go, breaking habits learned as a painter and a photographer, exploring, and seeing what will happen. In this series I am “painting with a camera,” creating variations that free my camera from being a mechanical recording device of what lies before it.
All images are Untitled, 24×24 inches, Edition of 5
