Built on Ashes
As I reflect on the photographs that comprise the series, Built on Ashes, I see a culture caught in two paradoxical modes: progress and stagnation; conformity and individuation. The result is an uneasy stasis between two extremes on a vast spectrum of human endeavor. I can see this tension reflected in the nature of our experience as humans more broadly as well, in our constantly shifting quicksand of changing perspectives, and, in our tenacious tendency to cling to what we have always known. Humans, it would seem, are contrary by their very nature. These beautiful and puzzling incongruities constitute our greatest strengths and most devastating weaknesses.
Born of this paradoxical essence, construction and, indeed reconstruction, emerge as aspects of humanity that exist as immutable forces in our societies; elements akin to nature, manifesting as a necessity for humans, but also as a barrier that ultimately inhibits as much as it expands potential. It is within this framework that I have situated my photographic inquiries. The juxtapositions and reciprocities that exist between the portraits and the images of the landscape provide dialogues that indicate a variety of themes including: the American Dream, class divide, the power of fantasy, and the inevitability of change.
Though the photographs are situated in the American Southeast, the concerns of the work can be experienced in a broader context, through both symbolism and the specific use of sequential imagery. Just as editing plays a crucial role in the documentary film, so too does the order that the photographic series moves in. If the viewer “reads” each image, the thoughts that emerge from that initial interpretation lead into the next image and the next and so forth. The resulting experience resembles, in certain ways, a storytelling experience for the viewer. The differences and similarities in our perception of that story reflect elements of the central thesis of the project.