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"Cat Got Your Tongue" Series

This series, titled Cat Got Your Tongue, is comprised of photographs as visual representations of idioms. If you're unfamiliar with the definition of an idiom, it's this crazy grammatical hullabaloo, mainly used in the English language, and is defined as a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent words. For example, to kick the bucket certainly doesn't mean to figuratively kick a bucket, and the last straw has absolutely nothing to do with how many straws are left. This photo series will challenge these idioms as their literal counterparts, and forces the viewer to be face to face with the cliché. 

Each photo is carefully staged to represent one idiom. Knowledge of certain idioms also varies on geographical location, and generational experiences. I’ve found that some of these idioms featured haven’t ever been heard of, while others have grown up hearing the phrase. I chose to present the images without titles, to suggest that the viewer contemplate and discuss what each photograph represents. Each photograph is paired with a QR code on a map, so if the viewer gets stuck, they can scan the QR code with their cell phone and receive the corresponding idiom. 

"Don't Look Down" Film Project

This project was shot entirely on 35mm film and all printed in the darkroom. I chose to document a weekend in the life of my boyfriend's band Don't Look Down, and photographed a show at a local venue, the aftermath of the house party they hosted afterward, and the next morning they spent nursing their hangovers while working in the studio.

The photos are featured in a handmade book. The cover is a piece of black cloth bleached with a stencil. The book itself is bound in used guitar strings. Every other page in the book has a semi-transparent page, covered in handwritten lyrics written by each band member. This was a very personal project and it was fun having some of my best friends involved in its creation.

"Soundwaves" Color Photogram Series

A photogram is is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The usual result is a negative shadow image that shows variations in tone that depends upon the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear white; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear grey.

Color photograms are slightly different. The light the is exposed to the photographic paper is made up of different colors, therefore changing the way the paper reacts. But otherwise, the process is exactly the same.

For my project, I used an 8x10" plexiglass box frame, and filled it about halfway with water. I then placed a small Bluetooth speaker on one side of the frame. Playing low bass frequencies through that speaker caused the frame's edge to vibrate very quickly, producing interesting vibrations in the water in the frame. The photographic paper was placed underneath the frame, and each image you see was an exposure through the water that only lasted a second. Therefore, what you are seeing is a freeze-frame of the vibrations through water caused my music.