Projections [Not Predictions]:

Reflecting on the pathway that led to photography.
June 2021



    During my science class, I was taken by a photograph of a classmate. It was a black and white photograph of a younger version of her. It was the most beautiful image I’d ever seen and I couldn’t even express why I felt such intense emotion from a portrait. It was like a scene from a different lifetime captured by someone wishing to lock a special moment as it appeared. The image seemed to be projecting the past into the present to influence the future.

    Projections, like predictions, aim to discern one or more potential likelihoods. However, projections unlike predictions seem to require a more active hand to maintain a prospective path.

    I think nonstop. I constantly replay conversations and investigate their implications in a multitude of complex situations and scenarios. I overthink. I overthink out of self-preservation. A taught, learned, and adapted skill set built out of insecurities amplified by outside influences.

    My thoughts consume me in ways that cause me to, at times become less reliable, flakey, short-tempered, depressed, and manic. There are so many conversations waiting for a starter, resting at the far corners and recesses of my mind.

    I create constantly, mentally and physically constructed improbable possibilities and structures. These works are act as stand-ins for conversations. They are tangible forms that add physical weight, depth and presence to abstract concepts and ideas.

    I create in hopes that another can find the narrative that will direct them and their path into the future.

    I once thought that the artist had an overarching, if not lofty responsibility: the production of imperative, documents of the varying life experiences and paths. Many times a day I find myself feeling as if I had a grasp upon an available pathway to a united future. In those moments I am overwhelmed with joy, love, and steadfast determination.

    We are building a time capsule for those that will call us ancestors. I move with the singular goal of building a home for them in the future. I will utilize all means and methods to meet the multitude of requirements necessary to maintain these forecasts.