Legend has it that when European explorers bought the land that would later become New York City from Native Americans for about $24 worth of trinkets, each group participating in the deal believed that they were taking advantage of the other. The Europeans thought this because their offering was nearly worthless, while the Native Americans thought so because the transaction itself was inconsequential—it would only have meaning if it were possible to own land.  

       My work complicates the narrative of how individuals and groups interact with their environments.  My small-scale postcard-sized collages unveil these interactions in the world at large through the lens of print media, mainly postcards dating from 1905 to the present. Postcards are a mass-produced form of media that is used for communication, and they typically represent a glorified, comfortable, and uncomplicated version of reality.  My black and white photography investigates interactions between people and the world they inhabit, and the mundane, seemingly inconsequential, but actually quite invasive effects of our actions.

       The juxtaposition between the idealized depictions of human-nature interactions from media like postcards, and the underlying, elemental reality of individual experience allows us to look critically at our actions and interactions, both on a personal level and in society at large.