I began as a kid assisting my dad on commercial photo shoots, though I never took pictures of my own, I just helped with the grunt work. And learned about how photographs are made in an advertising setting. It was in college when I started making my own photographs. I liked its relation to conceptual art and its seemingly simple and instant form of representation with a kind of performative nature.I started taking pictures when I attended school in New York City; I took a lot of cliché New York street photographs and learned about that tradition. Yes, mostly black and white with a lot of contrast. Only upon experimenting with the material of photography have I begun exploring the world scientifically.

Because it is important for me to try and let a material and/or subject determine the final work. Experimentation, chance and observation have always been a driving force in how I make things. Photography is so intertwined with observation and I see my work as a kind of extension of this tradition.

The use of pictures of nature began as a ready-made subject. I liked how simple it seemed and it is a subject that is not questioned and hence allowed for an isolation on material. But now I am not sure that I look at making pictures of nature the same way, I have adopted a kind of romance. I have become interested in how one experiences nature and the primordial wonderment of things and processes. It is such a vast and inexhaustible subject.

It is in the end when I feel an outcome becomes predictable and has lost the experimental energy and sense of play. The visual subject matter should relate to the material photographic form, and since my subjects often vary, my materials should too.

There are always mental notes in gaining a sense of how something works. But I never take any formal notes past a scribble on paper. Though I do draw a lot, I wish I took more notes, I am usually too much in the moment to remember to write things down. And I find that the more insecure I am, the more notes I have.

I have found that it does make a difference, but there are so many variables involved in the process that influence the outcome: for instance, the place and the time of the year when I collect the water.

It is an attempt to coalesce two elements of representation: the photographic and its material form. Most of my works are results of this idea.

No guilt, though sometimes there is disappointment, but it is often recuperated by surprise. It is a balance of expectations, as it would be boring if every outcome pleased me.

Entropy, chance operations, and Sunday painting.

I just finished an exhibition at M+B gallery that opened on the 24th of February, where I presented two new bodies of works: Heidelberg Blankets, embroidered used Heidelberg blankets; and Silver, silvered silver gelatine prints. I am flying to Minneapolis this week to explore some of the flourmills along the Mississippi river for an exhibition later this year. I also have been collecting rocks from the Newark Museum’s collection in New Jersey and making work to present in the same museum next year.