Photo Love

I have written about how photography allows us to pretend we can manipulate time, but it can do even so much more than that. Here, I have attempted to manipulate actual events themselves by transforming the essence of a few simple things. I have done so by putting these “things” in places where they are not from originally. My goal in these types of collaborative images is to create a composition in which all the pieces involved can agree with each other in an ironic manner. I liken this practice to people-watching, particularly when the people you are watching are strangers. I often find myself wondering what my life would be like if I were that person. Photo-manipulation of this persuasion is a way (if even an unusual way) that I can express some of my thoughts on this subject. So the question, “Who would I be if I were them?” becomes, “What would things be like if they had happened like this?” Juxtaposition resulting in misplacement and paradoxical advent is a passion of mine that I hope to explore further in the not too far-off future.

The woman in the image is my mother. After showing her the final product, she told me it accurately represented the plethora of feelings that had overwhelmed her after she was diagnosed with cancer. It had not been my intent to in any way connect this image to my mother’s sickness, but perhaps it should have been.