2021-2022

Consider this an incantation:
to cast a spell,
to conjure a world,
to get lost in the woods on purpose.

Once upon a time, I needed an escape; to let my mind wander in the realm of enchantment. It started with a plastic swan and from there it just spiraled. My head filled with frogs, jewels, brambles, blood, and tears. Inspired by fairytales, this series features female protagonists grounded in the natural world. Some images reference well-known narratives, while others draw from recurring motifs within the genre.

Working at the intersection of photography and printmaking, I use the language of symbols to weave stories from silhouettes. I construct images using the photogram process, a cameraless technique of capturing shadows that dates back to the 1830s. The resulting photogravure plates are then inked, layered with delicate tissue papers to add color, and printed through an intaglio press.

At a moment when tales of scaling glass mountains feel like metaphors for everyday life, I’ve found solace in recontextualizing mythic themes. There’s a certain confluence in using a process as old as photography to explore folk tales that are even older. And like so many of the stories that have inspired this work, it’s all about transformation.