American Fiction, 2020
American Fiction
During the Spring of 2020, it felt like America was cast under a dark spell of confusion and fear. Challenged by the times, I felt compelled to escape my cloistered, locked down neighborhood, in search of the America of my childhood imagination. The one forged by the books I read and the films I watched growing up. Metaphorically, I was envisioning a Hollywood film-like depiction of America. A place where beauty and boundless freedom coexists with modern alienation and mythical ideals.
The following months I wandered across the country studying the regional landscapes in the manner of a film scout, searching for traces of these impressions which haunted my imagination.
The places I encountered became a reflection of my own inner longings to feel a connection to my country. A way to color over the gray dystopian lines drawn by the mass media into a world of my own imaginings.
This is Not My Home, 2012
The images in this story were created to evoke a sense of what the world might look and feel like when filtered through the imagination of a child lost in the transition. I was imagining a magic spyglass that would lead children back to their true home after being displaced.