(re)composing phosphenes, 2015 - 2024

A selection of pinhole photographs recording moments contending with presence by exposing each sheet of film for the duration of a gesture, ritual, or natural happening.

Phosphenes are a phenomena of seeing light without light actually entering the eyes. Most commonly, we experience phosphenes from pressure upon closed eyes. Such ocular phenomena can persist even after the eyes open upon a visual scene. 

Holding my breath for as long as I can, listening to a song, walking to a point and back, waiting until my fingers go numb from the cold, all while the film is being exposed. I use this time to be aware, contemplative, to hear my heartbeat, to be reverent, penitent, and grateful. All things a sheet of film has no worry to be. The film exists in absolute vulnerability to be altered by the light. 

These photographs are humble accounts of pauses in yearning, measures of doubt, and questioning what it means to be present.