The most common ways to talk about photographs are as images that show consensus “reality” as it is, documents of things as they are, capturing, taking, shooting, preserving the moment, and recording memories. Those ways of talking about photography apply to vernacular, journalistic, documentary, and commercial work, all valid forms of photography, but irrelevant to this work. This series, along with much of conceptual photography, is more concerned with making photographs rather than taking, creating images rather than extracting information, and transforming versus informing. 

Not all of the coded meaning is immediately obvious or easily discovered. Some of it is culturally nuanced and opaque. There are multiple ways to approach this work and myriad ways to read it. Some frequent themes in this book are: authenticity/simulacra, freedom/imprisonment, inside/outside, real/unreal, art/entertainment, and other paradoxical dualities.

All of the photographs have only basic post-production and are single image, full frame, straight photographs, using a Canon DSLR. These photographs were made while living and traveling in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and of course, Florida.  Many of the pictures were made with “found sets” in amusement parks, zoos, and aquariums.

My hope is that the viewer will bring their unique experiences to this work to co-create narratives and unveil symbolic meaning by seeing, learning, and imagining. If you end up with more questions than answers, feel something differently, or start thinking about the world in a new way, the work has succeeded. 

If not, I hope you at least enjoy the pretty pictures.