Overflow

The water has a body and so do I. A body as old as time itself, one that has ebbed and flowed for longer than I can comprehend. Yet, within the tradition of photography, we have often restrained bodies of water and other natural elements to a romantic fragment within their time.  I am fortunate to know well the ever-shifting face of the nearshore, a knowledge that has compelled me to seek out an alternative way to image the water- one that takes into account its perpetual state of becoming and denies the photographic theft we have become well-accustomed to enacting. 

Overflow seeks to recognize picture as privilege by inviting water to be a collaborator in the photographic process. By using a cameraless medium, the traditional gaze of the lens is removed, allowing the water to take a leading role in its own imaging. Meeting the water at the shoreline, often in the quiet of morning, I arranged a composition with nearby flora and natural objects or my own body.  As the water rushed to meet the paper it slowly carved its features into the material, aided by natural light or artificial UV. What emerged were vibrant self-portraits of one of the earth’s most dynamic elements, both an abstract documentation of an uncontrollable force and a tangible record of the connection between myself and water forged over the passage of time. Overflow exists as part of a pursuit to image the natural world in a truthful, respectful, and reciprocal manner, placing importance on learning to revere the oceans and lakes that surround us.