Deconstructing Unfreedom With Contemporary Printmaking
Growing up captive in a religious cult allowed me to emerge into the world with an adult mind unsullied by popular belief. I use this as a lens for examining concepts of gender, race, and socio-economic power from a different perspective.
I developed photo composition as a contemporary printmaking medium. I build a massive digital file with dozens of photos and effects layers in Adobe Photoshop in the way that a traditional printmaker might carve a wood block to create depth in an image, or prepare multiple matrices for layers of color in a lithograph. Once I have combined all of the layers digitally, the file can be sent to a pigment inkjet printer that produces the printed work on watercolor rag. This process is a way for me to connect and integrate dozens of separate photographs within one print that recontextualizes and re-examines them.
In addition to photographing nature as a primary backdrop for my compositions, I also take photos of found objects and abandoned industrial structures. My exploration of unfreedom incorporates classical statuary and architecture to explore how they permeate material culture as symbols of white superiority and socio-economic dominance. Many of my photos are landmarks I have visited or artifacts I have held that are actually linked to chattel slavery.
Title: In the End - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 36 x 24 Inches - Year: 2019.
On the portico of Hampton Mansion stands a statue, a custom portrait in marble of the infant child of one of the wealthiest slave-holding families in Maryland, the Ridgelys. The Latin inscription I have added translates: "I shall perish".
On the portico of Hampton Mansion stands a statue, a custom portrait in marble of the infant child of one of the wealthiest slave-holding families in Maryland, the Ridgelys. The Latin inscription I have added translates: "I shall perish".
Title: The Accounting of Canton Plantation - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 24 x 36 Inches - Year: 2019.
The statue of John O'Donnell of Baltimore, who owned around 70 enslaved people at the time of his death in 1805. As of this writing in December 2019 his statue still stands in the center of a public square that bears his name, on the Baltimore City street that bears his name, in the neighborhood of Canton, which is named for one of his plantations.
The statue of John O'Donnell of Baltimore, who owned around 70 enslaved people at the time of his death in 1805. As of this writing in December 2019 his statue still stands in the center of a public square that bears his name, on the Baltimore City street that bears his name, in the neighborhood of Canton, which is named for one of his plantations.
Title: Memento Mori - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 36 x 24 Inches - Year: 2018.
Richard the Ironmaster, slaveholder at Montpelier in Laurel, is long dead. The symbols of his supremacy are mere ephemera he bought stolen human lives. The Latin title of this piece translates: "Remember that you will die".
Richard the Ironmaster, slaveholder at Montpelier in Laurel, is long dead. The symbols of his supremacy are mere ephemera he bought stolen human lives. The Latin title of this piece translates: "Remember that you will die".
Title: Annunciation - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 36 x 26 Inches - Year: 2019.
A composition that recontextualizes a 1996 photo of my forced marriage in a religious cult as a way to explore patriarchal constructs and Eurocentric religious archetypes used as mechanisms for control.
A composition that recontextualizes a 1996 photo of my forced marriage in a religious cult as a way to explore patriarchal constructs and Eurocentric religious archetypes used as mechanisms for control.
Title: The Ironmaster's Providence - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 24 x 36 Inches - Year: 2018.
If you visit the immaculately restored Ridgely Mansion, you can sit on this charming antebellum iron bench and look out at the formal gardens. On a tour of the mansion, a guide will tell you how the children who lived here kept squirrels as pets. Close by but out of site, enslaved people endured hell on earth in the Ridgely's iron forges.
If you visit the immaculately restored Ridgely Mansion, you can sit on this charming antebellum iron bench and look out at the formal gardens. On a tour of the mansion, a guide will tell you how the children who lived here kept squirrels as pets. Close by but out of site, enslaved people endured hell on earth in the Ridgely's iron forges.
Title: For This is Sacred Ground - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 48 x 27 Inches - Year: 2019.
Free blacks built a community near the Gunpowder River where they had been formerly enslaved in the forges. In September 1887, black and white participants gathered together to pray at the old site of the forges where the railroad bridge crosses the river today, and iron bolts from the industrial operation could still be seen protruding from the rocks.
Free blacks built a community near the Gunpowder River where they had been formerly enslaved in the forges. In September 1887, black and white participants gathered together to pray at the old site of the forges where the railroad bridge crosses the river today, and iron bolts from the industrial operation could still be seen protruding from the rocks.
Title: In Captivity - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 24 x 36 Inches - Year: 2019.
The birds have their freedom.
The birds have their freedom.
Title: On This Site - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 24 x 36 Inches - Year: 2018.
In the muddy foreground lies an iron corn-shucking tool that would have been used by an enslaved person.
In the muddy foreground lies an iron corn-shucking tool that would have been used by an enslaved person.
Title: Cult of the White Madonna - Medium: Digital Photo Composition from Digital Photography, Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle Watercolor Rag - Size: 36 x 27 Inches - Year: 2019.
A white marble statue of a mother and child, members of the slave-holding Ridgely family. The statue was created as a portrait and still stands on the portico of Hampton Mansion. The Ridgely statue has replaced a statue of the Virgin Mary in this photo of my mother, circa 1960. The Latin inscription I have added roughly translates: "Adore and emulate us."
A white marble statue of a mother and child, members of the slave-holding Ridgely family. The statue was created as a portrait and still stands on the portico of Hampton Mansion. The Ridgely statue has replaced a statue of the Virgin Mary in this photo of my mother, circa 1960. The Latin inscription I have added roughly translates: "Adore and emulate us."
