After the death of my grandparents, my aunt gave me a box of old photographs of their friends throughout life. I felt both sad and honored to be the keeper of these often unwanted and discarded images, because no one knows these people or relationships anymore.

This series is in honor of friendships - the power they give and the fear of how they change and pass with time. They are supernovas - life changing, inevitably ending, and interwoven in complex ways with time. This is also made with humility and in awe of time. Let us acknowledge and celebrate what we can only begin to know.

Exploring the power of play, conversations between female friends, and the family video as an archive.

Mama, Maman (extended)

My photographic series delves into the interplay between visibility and invisibility through the lens and history of infrared technology. This work features my mother and mother-in-law captured with an infrared filtered camera in two opposing countries. Photos of my mother are located around her home in Ohio and my mother-in-law is around her home in Iran. Along with slowly revealing portraits, these photos also showcase the women in many ways, such as standing firmly on their land, touching the connecting sky and sun. They are ghostly spirits and praying, pleading mothers.I highlight the connections that we share across both cultural and geographical divides. Infrared technology, with its origins in military surveillance and its capacity to reveal what the naked eye cannot see, acts as a metaphor for understanding the often hidden or obscured relationships, histories, and humanity. Infrared light's inability to show detail mirrors the lack of deep understanding these two countries have for one another. I translate these invisible connections into a visible narrative that bridges personal and political realms. My focus on the maternal figure and themes of familial love seeks to illuminate the deep, symbolic connections that transcend geographical and political boundaries and military involvement. Almost always, another type of technology, such as a camera, is needed to translate what the infrared filter sees into a digital or physical image that humans can see. I pointed my infrared camera towards two women--two mothers--from two countries with an incredibly complex and tumultuous relationship.

These photographs were taken of my husband and his mother in Tehran, Iran and myself and my mother in Plain City, Ohio with an Infrared filter. I was interested in the history of the use of infrared technology in military practices. I wondered how I could turn that towards our international relationship/marriage and relationship between our home countries. I focus on the icon of maternal figure and ideas around familial love.

Often shown with other work, Flight Paths and Intentional Mending.

These cyanotype fabric pieces are made up of plant life collected in various places of Ohio, USA and also in Tehran, Kilan, Isfahan, and Sabzevar, Iran. I was playing with ideas of archiving, map making, mending/healing, and travel. With the veil material, hanging from the flight paths, I wanted to experiment with marriage materials, ideas of absence, and holding space.

Often shown with other work, Mama, Maman.

This is a depiction of the birth and baptism of Eve, the first biblical woman. This is a missing origin story and a push back against heavily patriarchal forms of religion that portray women as villain and/or victim. She is a flame - baptized in Mother Earth - a light for all of us.

Exploration of caregiving, transitional spaces and times, and female iconography.

Made with the flowers I kept, our bed sheet, and emesis bags.

Makeshift. Sufficient for the time being.

Generations passing through space. Space surpassing all of us.

Images of women found in Ohio thrift stores and antique stores.

Turned whichever way the handwriting is present.

If nothing it written the image is still denied.

“There’s your history - written right on the back.”

Dying of old age and a broken heart.

They both came back as cardinals.

Combination of images and text inspired by part of a family conversation between my mother, grandmother, and myself.

Tracey, Alice, Elizabeth, Cassidy, Pam, Kayla, Joan, Judy, Sue, Stephanie, Lydia, Kathy, Tami, Valerie on disposable camera. 

Female members of my family, both related and not, married, divorce or otherwise, who are familiar and strangers, all asked to document their lives on a disposable camera. I had a visual conversation with their images.

Found Images of Barbara Ann Pry’s life combined with screen printed text “I” “we” “you” and the bag with her remaining belongings.

Part of a paper making a performance collaboration between myself and Angela Sprunger. Still in progress.

Women together. In conversation. This is the history not written down. This photo is what remains of their time together.

Testimony in looking. Documentary evidence. Proof.

In paper.

What it would be like if we didn’t discard our dolls and grew up together?

These photographs show the everyday mixed with the ceremony of the Christian baptism. This patriarchal religion’s role in female identity is examined through the mother figure and child. From the moment the water breaks in the womb both the mother and child are born, or rather, reborn. They are connected through life by fluids-amniotic and beyond.

Through the material of 120 film I explore through the psychological aspects of self and other, the fear and loathing of femininity, and observing oneself

I bought Barbara Pry. 

Or at least a substantial portion of her life in photographs for $34, collected in a ziplock bag, sitting in an antique store in Ohio. With the very little information that was included I was able to do my own research about Barbara (who I found out had died in 2011.) 

Since purchasing what felt like paper remains of this woman I have begun to find ways of exploring our connections and narrating who I imagine Barbara to be. How our relationship to the region of Ohio, being a female in the Midwest, and other overlapping material has begun to unfold. 

This is a visual story of Barbara Pry and I. 

Sustainable living is emerging everywhere right now. This lifestyle has a complex power as it simultaneously belongs to and fights against a capitalist system. This gray area of being within boundaries while pushing against them interested me most. Admission into the sustainability sphere often requires a level of privilege; however, involvement in this area can also mean membership in a sort of grassroots community. There is a desire to focus on the individual makers, growers, and producers within a small community instead of the monopolies and big businesses. I am interested in people who try to work outside of the systems upon which they also depend. Athens County in particular is a fascinating place to observe the slippage between unique creation and mass culture as it is a rural community consisting not only of laborers but also artisans. Like its subjects, the images in this series work off of one another, creating a community within the piece itself. 

Both the bodies and objects within these homes showcase a sense of pride. This series of work revolved around one main statement, “Tell me about your home.”

Miranda and I took our photo at Target portrait studio. I then created my own picture frame stock photo and placed/repalced many copies in different frames in common stores. 

This work exposes the action of self-defense training as an attempt to keep safe in a country where women are raped every two minutes. This explores repetition and often fruitless labor. I practice self-defense moves for two minutes at a time on the scene of a crime. I then show the impact of my actions.

Acting as the Touch Creature I experimented with what it looked and felt like to be disconnected from physical contact. This desire to touch and be touched is fundamental to human development and social sustainability. Physical contact releases oxytocin — the hormone of love and attachment that our cells crave.

Generation Why is a small collection of a variety of people belonging to generation Y. This is based off the the theory that often the generation growing up in war and economic struggle tend to be culturally progressive both politically and personally. I took each image on 35 mm film and physically chewed up each image to a varying degree, demonstrating a generation coming through a variety different difficulties but enduring. This word play is about people asking questions and moving forward in a charged society. 

Using infrared to see beyond our worldly eyes and communicate with ancestors.

This series was worked in two slightly different iterations. Both suggest an idea of storytelling, memory, and truth. 

Combinations of the ordinary with vestiges of “classical” references. A study in pose and a pleasure in performance.