Art/modeling
Photography
Publications
My goal with being published as a photographer is not just to simply get more eyes on my work, but to have the images break people away from the regular physical art viewing experience. I really want the images that I create to stay with the viewer after they turn the page and I really want the viewer's eyes to linger. I only want to publish works that are thought provoking, different, and generate a conversation. I think it's important that photographers embrace the artistic aspect of capturing an image and avoid letting industry take hold of expression and creativity.
MATURE CONTENT WARNING
More Than a Consumer
August 2021
Double Publishing: Mordant Magazine and Feroce Magazine
The concept behind this photoshoot was to express the dangers of consumerism and how we all are constantly buying products to fill an unfillable void. I see consumerism as a drug, one that we fall for over and over again, chasing a high that we cannot satisfy. The plastic mask symbolizes how fake I felt when buying products, clothes, makeup, etc. to seem more attractive and appealing to others rather than myself.
Model: Taylor Moncrieff
Helix issue 05
July 2022
Helix is an NFT zine found on the Tezos blockchain.
"Each page of Helix has an image that inspires the photo on the next page. Thus, the photo on page one is the inspiration for the photo on page two. You can see who, which work, or which feelings are affected by the photos, from the photos themselves, from the feelings they evoke in you, and from the texts on the page. Each photographer in this issue created a brand new photo from the inspiration they get from the photo sent to them which they [are] not aware of its creator. As a result, photographs produced with pure and creative emotions were obtained by avoiding various factors that have the potential to affect us, even if we are not aware of it."
For my submissions, I was inspired to touch on subjects that are very deep and also controversial: death and religion. This project was very meaningful to me because for the first time, I was able to fully express my thoughts in writing with my work, being allowed to dive deeply and freely using self portraits.
Mina Art Magazine - Featuring Reconquest
June 2023
Mina is an NFT zine found on the Tezos blockchain.
It is a feminist magazine dedicated to featuring women/femme artists and activists from around the world. When they wanted to feature a project I lead with Maral Maric called "Reconquest" I was elated! The project was a parody project for women/femme photographers to do self-portrait expression against the misogynistic direction, outfit choices (or lack thereof), and practices by male photographers. We did a call to artists and invited photographers we felt would take on this bold and in-your-face portrait concept to choose an image that perpetuates toxic beauty standards and replicate it themselves however they felt comfortable. Some of the male photographers we parodied were famous, others have been cast away in the shadows of time. Many of us did face public backlash, including myself, from the photographers that were chosen as well as their fans, and I am incredibly proud of how we stood our ground and pressed on with this project regardless.
For my submission, I chose an image titled "88MPH in SoHo" by Guido Disalle. My parody approach was comedic to showcase how silly his concept was and how incredibly mind blowing it was that he made thousands in crypto for a sexy body posed crooked in front of a DeLorean. I won't sugarcoat it: the image was basic. So on my part, I wanted to go ridiculous. There are so many approaches to this project. What if the women wanted to pose like this? What if they felt good about it? But there are so many ways to showcase a woman and there are so many ways to combat the toxic male gaze that, yes, does exist in my opinion. I feel that the women we parodied were not done justice in their photographs and I feel there are many women with regular bodies or even more weight than average who deserve to be modeling and deserve that recognition too. There are so many different types of bodies, why resort to one type? Why pose them in that way? Why make them believe that it is the only way to be to be sexy? So many questions, so much to think about. That is why I loved this project.
Some text from the interview will not be worded 100% accurately as it was translated and re-translated due to it being circulated to people who do not speak English.