Artist Statement

South Pacific Whales

My interest in whales was sparked at a very early age. At the age of five, as I was pining after a lunchbox covered in whales, my father told me there was a place in the South Pacific Ocean where I could actually swim with them. Years later, I jumped online and in three days I was slipping into the water to fulfill my childhood dream.
I wasn’t quite aware of the effect this trip would have over me and the need that would arise to record these wonderful creatures over the years.
My dream is to produce life-sized images of these whales: to bring my passion for their protection to the world by showing them in large indoor and outdoor spaces.

Exhibitionism – New Yorkers

The streets of New York City are so fast-paced it is rare that anyone has a chance to see the intimate details of the people charging by. I was able to stop some to take two minutes out of their day and capture them on film and felt the significance of every second they gave me before they rushed off. A bit of the city and the people that fascinate and inspire me in my daily have been preserved, captured for future observation.
I'm amassing a collection of one hundred street portraits to be displayed in a 3' x 15' panoramic of six to eight subjects. The scale allows the viewer to be a voyeur of the smallest details, to examine everything from their blackberries and handbags to the minutia of their body and facial expressions.
The photographs document the diversity and culture of the city. Patterns are emerging that reveal and confirm neighborhood stereo types as well as exemplify how New Yorkers set themselves apart and are extraordinarily unique.

97 °F / 36 °C

Walking along the boardwalk of Manly Beach, Australia in March 2007 I noticed a bunch of English tourist lying on towels. I was struck by the visual story they told, stretched out on the sand below me. Each object around them told a story of who they are, as well as who we are as a collective group. It tells much more than just the love of being warmed by the sun and darkening our skin colour. The sand is a platform that highlights the current beach fashion, our love of cell phones and iPods, and various body types.
Over the following cold months back in New York, I thought of ways to record our beach life as if for a time capsule for future generations to observe our lives now. In June 2007, I tested my idea on the beach of Coney Island in New York. It blew me away how different the two cultures are, while united in the same act of warming and browning the body. I was amazed by the amount of stuff New Yorkers brought to the beach and proximity they laid to one another.
That summer, I asked many people on Coney Island if they would let me set up a camera over their head to take a portrait. Many were a little unsure and said no. It didn’t help that I’m a stuttered and quite afraid of talking to strangers; my stutter became exaggerated to the extreme. Luckily there were some wonderful, open-minded people that waited for me to complete my sentences and allowed me to record them exactly how I found them.
I wanted this series to be honest. I wasn’t trying to beautify the scene or the subjects--it was unabashedly real. Before I set up my gear, I asked people to not move or pose in any way. I also tried to capture the diversity of the beaches--all ages, shapes and sizes. I was excited to head to Australia in December of 2007 to shoot one of my home beaches, Manly, the beach that inspired the collection and was a huge part of my early childhood.
The contrast between the beachgoers of America and Australia allows a deeper story to develop and illustrates our cultural differences.
I look forward to revisiting this theme over the years to watch the beach styles evolve.

Last Breath

Growing up a surfer in Australia allowed me to feel the power of the ocean every day. As a teenager, it didn’t matter how angry or frustrated I was going into the water, the crashing waves tossed me about until I was left with nothing other than total exhaustion. I learned to love the feeling of the complete lack of control as waves picked me up, and rolled me around and around again.
In 2005, a friend broke his neck in a surfing accident. This inspired my collection “Last Breath” after I read an e-mail he dictated of what he felt in those helpless seconds under the water. I was deeply moved by those words.
This is an ongoing series of underwater photos taken of and in the middle of the turbulence of powerful waves.

Cyborg

Walking around New York, I was inspired by New Yorker’s ability to completely disconnect from the city around them. We use fascinating pieces of technology of all shapes, sizes and designs to either listen to music or to communicate to others without having to lift a hand to hold a phone next to the ear and mouth.
I walked around NY photographing many of the current models of headsets from the early part of 2008. I intentionally shot these pieces of technology very close and in a visually direct way. To keep them disconnected from the subject, I shot no faces and recorded no names of the random subjects in the street. I wanted my image to be unattached to the identity of the person, to single out the ear technology and disconnect it from the person, as they were the means to disconnect the subject in the first place.
Many social factors also drew me to this collection. The decision to place a phone within the ear and the choice to disconnect ourselves from the world around us appeals to all ages, races and social classes. I photographed a homeless man with a Bluetooth right before a Wall Street-type who didn’t stop his business dealings as I shot. New Yorkers choose their technology to be a fashionable accessory, or use for social status.
I’m very curious to see how future generations will view what we consider cutting edge technology. I look forward to revisiting this fascinating theme over the years and to record where technology leads us.