I have great respect for people’s differences.
I have always wanted to approach and understand the stranger, or
the ‘strange’.
I am interested also in self-estrangement – how we may keep hidden and feel
shame for aspects of ourselves.
I believe that if we are not afraid to talk to strangers, to visit them,
to listen to them – we become able to put aside prejudices and preconceptions.
We reach understanding.
The ‘other’ becomes one of us.
Also, I hoped that through the privilege of listening to other people’s
honest accounts of their lives, I might gain insights into my own life.
That I might find more self-acceptance.
I use photography as a form of healing.
My work is a process of self-observation that develops through intimate conversations with the "other", the different from me; conversations that employ images, text and videos.
Through photography I am able to re-examine everything: who I am, what I think, what I feel, my education, society, religion. I work with people I encounter on the street, or online. Rather than using my camera as a barrier or separation between myself and the subject, I share control of the medium - where, how and when I use my camera - giving freedom of expression to the encounter.
They present themselves as they are, as they wish, without any imposition.
By allowing myself to be physically and emotionally vulnerable, I encourage people to entrust me with their vulnerabilities. The final documentation is true, sincere, transparent in the present moment, sometimes appalling. The camera is a mirror, the observer becomes the observed, the mirror the person reflected.
Do we like what we see?
My practice is an investigation into the power of trust in human relationships.
Can our minds free themselves from habits they have cultivated: from unhelpful opinions, judgments, fears, attitudes, values? What is real?