Contact

Untitled (Lucky with Julia) From the series Contact, 2005 Archival pigment print, 6 ¾” x 5 ½”

Untitled (Alice with Sam) From the series Contact, 2005 Archival pigment print, 6 ¾” x 5 ½”

Untitled (Alex with Julia) From the series Contact, 2005 Archival pigment print, 6 ¾” x 5 ½”

Untitled (Dude with Paula) From the series Contact, 2005 Archival pigment print, 6 ¾” x 5 ½”

Untitled (Pepy with Hazel) From the series Contact, 2005 Archival pigment print, 6 ¾” x 5 ½”

Untitled (Rabbit with Michelle) From the series Contact, 2005 Archival pigment print, 6 ¾” x 5 ½”

Untitled (Amsterdam with Mark) from the series Contact, 2005 Archival pigment print, 6 ¾” x 5 ½

Untitled (Sebastian with Julia) From the series Contact, 2005 Archival pigment print, 6 ¾” x 5 ½”

Contact

In the series Contact, I investigate the nature of touch as it occurs between human and companion animals on a daily basis. Because I was interested in the transient touch connections that happen many times daily, such as a pat on the head, rub on the leg or stroke of the tail, I wanted to be as unobtrusive as possible when I visited the homes of my subjects. For this series, I used a Spectra Polaroid camera with a macro (close up) lens. To isolate transitory instances of contact, I often took pictures without looking through the lens of the camera. This strategy allows for coincidence and spontaneity to play a large role in the images. I use abstraction and fragmentation to highlight the complexity of the bonds between animal and human, and to avoid the sentimentalized, clichéd tropes usually associated with this subject matter. The small, grainy photographs, muted color palette, fragmentary nature of the figures and spatial ambiguity all develop a unique visual vocabulary for the depictions of animals.

These photographs were taken with a Spectra Polaroid camera, scanned and digitally output.