"It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
—William Carlos Williams, from Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

Over the last few years, I’ve been reviewing the full history of my work, challenging the foundations of my role as a full-time international photojournalist. I have been asking hard questions about privilege and purpose, systemic supremacies, agency, authorship, art, and representation. And—if my photography can inform these concerns—how it might be deconstructed and reimagined to vitalize new possibilities in knowing an infinitely diverse yet inextricably connected world.

WHAT IS FOUND THERE recontextualizes images from 20 years of assignments, commissions, and personal projects challenging the dominant paradigms I worked within and asking how they might be deconstructed and reimagined to vitalize new possibilities in knowing an infinitely diverse yet inextricably connected world. This project reveals new interpretations of my professional photography, considering it outside of an issue-driven, journalistic framework, combining it with images from a private “photo journal” reflecting personal experiences and observations over the same 20 years.

Each polyptych intuitively combines images made at different times, in different places, and with different intentions. While the assignment images document recognizable and familiar issues—and so may still evoke meditations on ways we live on the planet and with each other—the physical manipulations of the surfaces and deliberate creation of new objects (hand-mounting; painting and drawing on the images; and surreal compositions in intuitive collages with variable relief) prioritize the symbolic language and subjective nature of photography over the literal documentation of facts. There is no place, date, or caption information provided, nor are the personal photographs annotated in any way. They are not meant to be evidence, explanatory, juxtaposition, or to provide specific answers. These works reveal the original subconscious inspirations for the moments photographed, inviting viewers to discover novel narratives that engage the photographer, the photographs, those photographed, and themselves as they surface their own truths about themselves, their place in the world beyond themselves, and the interconnectedness of human experience.

Part of the development of this project and its proof of concept included working with my life+creative partner and engaging with/observing others in our personal arts community as they made their own collages and discovered their own meanings in temporary combinations of my images.

Some friends created more literal collages and some made them more conceptual or even abstract. Some talked about what they meant to them, or what they were trying to say, or where it helped them see something differently. Some just made the collage and stepped back, refusing to put words to it. Each example reinforced how much context can change even the most "objective" photojournalistic image.

Each photograph is hand mounted on wood museum blocks then coated in acrylic paints and clear gels before being varnished. Mounted prints are combined into collages and screwed together creating 3 dimensional objects.

There are currently several hundred source images from pervious assignments and my private "photo journal". Mounted image sizes range from 4" square to 20" long edge.

Each polyptych exists for a time as a temporary draft in my studio before being finalized and permanently screwed together into a finished piece. This allows time for me to meditate on the combination as well as for others who might pass through to reflect and feedback, adding to the intuitive, collaborative interpretations of each final work. Below are some recent final pieces.