One of my current long-term projects, Client Can Not Refuse, examines the history of psychiatric hospitals in the United States through photographs of abandoned institutions and artifacts associated with treatment practices. The title “Client Can Not Refuse” was inspired by a rubber stamp artifact that indicated medication or treatment which was mandatory for a patient regardless of their consent. The work is informed by research into psychological theory, institutional negligence, and the ethics of experimental methods.

Some objects appear benign without knowing the context. Photos of a line of rocking chairs along a hallway, an arrangement of screws and nails, and a black doctor’s bag all take on a different meaning after reading the accompanying text. 

These photographs are from psychiatric wards in hospitals, therapeutic mental institutions, and correctional facilities across America including noteworthy locations in Missouri, and Pennsylvania. For many patients, once they were admitted, they would never be released.

These creative portrait and fashion works are less narrative and more concerned with form, lighting, mood, and the visual language of glamour. Rather than functioning as strict documentation, they examine how persona is constructed through gesture, color, and atmosphere.

Some images are simply celebrations of beauty and form, approached with the same formal rigor I bring to more overtly conceptual work. Common qualities I strive for are cinematic lighting, color that is is hyper-controlled or monochromatic, and sculptural-inspired poses. The moods shift between vulnerability, distance, tension, and performance.

These studies explore the figure through mood and visual design. The subjects contribute to pose, expression, and styling, shaping the image as a collaborative effort rather than a one-way gaze.

These images are a mixed collection of figures in motion and publicity photographs.

Pictures of places and growth. Real, but reinterpreted.

What happened before? What happened after?