These images are environmental portraits taken in urban and suburban Denver, Colorado. The majority were made on bicycle rides around the city and are of people and spaces I happened upon coincidentally, as well as individuals who sat for me in their places of work. The subject matter is very ordinary in nature and aims to remind the viewer that the alchemy that transforms the mundane into the bizarre is available to each of us if we look for it. These images are shot with a twin lens, medium format camera with color film and hand printed in a darkroom.
I have found that a waist-level camera facilitates a kind of portrait making without the usual performance one puts on when posing for a lens at eye-level. The slow printing process allowed me to reflect on each image’s quality, as well as its meaning. Creating this body of work has brought process to the forefront of my practice, which is something I have shied away from in the past. It has also helped me see color in a new way. I have been influenced by portrait photographers Diane Arbus and Mary Ellen Mark for many years and have recently been inspired by color photographers William Eggleston, Martin Parr, Larry Sultan, and Roger Minick. This body of work is about the city where I live and its occasional magic.
