While I Was Away

Since 2015, I have collected millions of surveillance images that document the history of a rural property and the uninvited guests who visit.  It took some time for me to realize that when purchasing a property, even in the middle of nowhere, you are unwittingly purchasing a community. Ownership and privacy do not mean much if nobody follows the rules.  Subjects caught on camera were originally the source of much anger and frustration, but I eventually learned to accept them as an inevitable part of the environment.  There was little I could do to stem the flow of trespassers, so I resolved to find a use for them.  With no reasonable recourse available to me, this body of work began as a passive-aggressive expression of sovereignty.  Photography offered a world I could control.  The burden became a gift, and the image, indemnification for our involuntary exchange.

Subjects are contact printed in an attempt to bury them into the background.  Using this early printing technique with contemporary materials, flattens the entire image onto one plane while creating surface depth and detail.  The supersaturation of unreceptive, low-adhesion film creates a buildup of pigment which makes the photograph malleable.  When contact printed to materials of greater adhesion, the pigment dries immediately, bonding films together.  Torn apart, the image divides, providing two distinct positive images. The tension between surfaces causes tearing and puckering, which creates a common texture where foreground and background converge.  The result is reproduced digitally to archival rag.