We are Multitudes

We are Multitudes, a series of studio multiple-exposure digital and film portraits. I approach the photographs the way I learned to paint, layering formal elements, emotional expressions, and competing ideas to create conversations on a two-dimensional surface. I often build with multiple exposures in camera, then edit the digital raw files or work the negatives and prints by hand in the darkroom, often scratching, cutting, masking, toning, staining, and painting over portions of the photographic surface. I sometimes cut and assemble the prints into collages, or simply manipulate the original print so that the final product is a unique object and not just a simple reproduction. The work captures public perception of mental health within the context of a supersaturation of visual media and societal attitudes, as the result of being fed a constant stream of personally curated information. Some of the themes are confirmation bias, mental health, the anxiety of constant comparison, and doubt in a perceived objective reality and one’s own perception. Much of that is informed by my own experiences and today’s culture of hypersaturation of information and visuals that are often algorithmically curated to fit our own personal attitudes.