Remarkably, instead of facilitating an extension of human sight, the fantastic recording ability of photography has helped create a complex system of social and cultural imagery that reduces every conceivable person, place, or thing in the visible world into an aesthetic form. The net result to culture is a reduction of our world to static images, crafted to stimulate precise, calculated responses. In contrast to revealing further information of our physical existence, the photographic image short-circuits the process of empirical knowledge and substitutes a system of competing and often contradictory visual agendas. The formation of our identities through this process is of particular interest to me and I retell a small part of my own creation by including images of myself.

In order to comment on our image conscious culture, I crafted complex and visually seductive images containing layers of imagery to represent the many competing practices within contemporary popular photography. By combining diverse visual elements, I’m commenting on the multiplicity of purposes and disciplines at work in mainstream visual culture. The complexity of each image and the confusion and contradictions between images and text mirror the current stupefying quality of cultural imagery.