Upstate

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”
― Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

In my collection, “Upstate,” I investigate the dissonance between memory and reality; between text and image.

I had returned to photograph the upstate New York of my youth. When I arrived, I discovered that the present-day landscape no longer matched the images in my memory. My project became a paradox: I was objectively documenting the sometimes mundane scenes that triggered touching or disquieting memories of my childhood.

I was keenly aware that the current version of me was no longer part of this new terrain, just as this new terrain was gradually obscuring and obliterating the events of my past.

These photographs contain ghost images that now only I can see. My description is the only record. They are a nod to the stories that live within each of us -- to the relentless passage of time.