Origins is a body of work attempting to scratch the surface of a rich but brutal history. A history of discovery and exploitation in the mineral rich area of Minas Gerais, Brazil (in Portuguese the word exploração translates to both exploitation and exploration). My work can not even begin to describe the wounds left on the earth and humanity by the avarice

of man,. I can only try to document the marks left behind. This project is composed of coffee stained cyanotypes, one of the first photographic processes developed in the mid-19th century. Its principal active ingredient is iron salts, evoking the area known as the “Iron Triangle”, where I produced most of this work. The state contains the world’s richest veins of iron ore, the mining of which comprises much of its economic activity. Slavery was essential to the cycle of gold mining that began in the 17th century and preceded the iron industry of today. While the institution of slavery was abolished in Brazil (in 1888, the last country in the Americas), its systems and structures have persisted to this day. The process of staining the images in coffee not only alters the color and tone of the images but also references one of the main activities of slavery in Brazil in the 19th century, harvesting coffee beans. The coffee and iron salts used to render these images are

themselves commodities that are still mined and made in the area (coffee, iron, gold, silver, people). The process of staining also reflects upon what remains. My work is concerned with recording the reflections and shadows I perceive of this

history, rather than the direct evidence of it.