September 2012
Artist Statement
At times the constraints of a 36x24mm rectangle can be stifling, especially to contain something as immense as the American landscape. I mean this not in the tradition of landscapes as we most commonly think, but that of the occupied landscape, which changes with each movement.
For the last few years I have been gathering these slivers of the shifting landscape as the United States undergoes political, social and economic transformation. The images are driven by a question – how does geography shape us? I find myself ravenous to see more of the country that I call home and to understand the influence of place.
Biography
I was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1986 and am the oldest of four children. We grew up in the peanut-farming town of Suffolk, Virginia. Watching my grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease was a formative experience, and a road trip with my grandfather cemented my early relationship with photography.
I studied photojournalism at Ohio University and in 2007 I helped to form the cooperative LUCEO. I’ve worked with GQ, Esquire, Mother Jones, TIME, FADER, Harper’s, Apple, National Geographic and others.
My time in college was an incubation period, and participating in the Joop Swart Masterclass in 2009 was my birth. In 2010 I was named one of PDN’s 30. Recently I’ve been working with support of grants from ShootQ, National Press Photographers Association, Aaron Siskind Foundation and National Geographic magazine. The Portland Art Museum and The Museum of Fine Arts Houston are keeping some of my prints safe. These days I’m living in Norfolk, Virginia with my family while compulsively documenting everything around me.
