I am a flâneuse, a pscyhogeographer, a pedestrian, and a walker.

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Those who know me know that I walk...EVERYWHERE. I used to daydream about walking urban environments as a child, and as soon as I moved to Boston as a late teen, I took to the streets to make it a reality. It’s a time when I can think, brainstorm, trouble-shoot, and just unwind. I also walk for my daily commute.  

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We are often limited in our view of what is around us. Daily tasks constrain us from really experiencing our own towns and cities. We wake up, get ready for the day, commute, spend our time working, run errands, and commute home.  Leisure activities are usually linked with some form of consumption and scheduled in times of rest. Using the Situationist framework of pyschogeography and the dérive, I embrace the act of walking and exploring urban environments. It’s about going beyond the micro-environment of daily life. Your environment guides you, in a way, and letting this happen makes walking more playful.

 

It isn't coincidence that walking and photography go hand in hand for me. Photography is a means for self-expression and creative fulfillment. I am captivated by the visual texture in everyday objects. Their chaordic nature interests me and I find beauty within them. These images are often captured while on one of my countless dérives (drifts). I am fascinated by how the environment can effect one’s emotions. I am often drawn to naturally occurring patterns and textures left behind after human contact such as graffiti or from natural deterioration such as old weathered advertisements. These traces prompt me to consider what these areas may have been like in the past and what memories are linked to them.

 

This space serves as an intersection for two opposing viewpoints. Within my career, I seek to slow deterioration and deter agents of change. Yet, in my photography and walking practice, I seek it out. This duality reflects the often split desires of stabilization and chaos that I hold. The physical and optical changes that take place while an object reacts to its environment stimulate my visual senses, which in turn provoke a feeling of interest. While photographing, I am in a sense documenting the degradation, but also trying to create something new with it. Therefore, if I create something new, I celebrate it through its transformation. When I see an object deemed of worth within a cultural heritage point of view, I appreciate it at its current point in time and desire others to access it in the future. If I am entrusted to preserve someone else’s voice or creation, my role changes, and I want to preserve.

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