Awarded the Michael T. Genco Jr. Prize in Photography, 2024

Self-Portraits on Foil is a series of gel transfers onto aluminum foil that explore the abstraction of self-portraits, old and new. Each photograph is taken, printed, painted with emulsion gel, submerged under water, scrubbed, and mounted onto aluminum foil. With each digital revisit, I lose pixels. When I print, I lose detail. When I transfer them I make them more disjointed and less true. I deteriorate them until they are powerless. They are scraps bearing familiar indentations.

1.

I am all alone and it is the best!

I take a photograph that reduces white to middle gray, and middle gray to black.

2.

I show my family some photos I took the other day.

I flip through them on the screen of my digital camera.

I accidentally loop around to the beginning of the SD card.

It’s only on the screen for a second…

3.

It wasn’t a bad photo, but it was uncomfortable. (See photo #1 below. My shirt is over my head. I thought my neck looked cool).

I am little, so I feel shame.

4.

I reclaim it years later when I’m older (and have not produced any self-portraits in a while).

Photography, gel transfers, tin foil. Clinton, NY. 2023.