My photography is a form of archeology: it starts from objects in spaces.

My work manifests their materiality first as light-reflecting surfaces, then as physical participants in a universe of objects with a geometric relationship to other objects within the frame, then as social participants in a universe of objects with an economic and cultural relationship to other objects within and beyond the frame, then finally as testimonies of processes outside the frame both in space and in time: the collective and private preoccupations of the humans who designed them as products, built them out of materials, bought them, and arranged them in the space where I framed them.

I primarily photograph interior and exterior built environments and the objects they contain in New York, Europe, and Africa. I often photograph hands and bodies in their engagement with objects and spaces, but rarely faces unless people request it.

I like highlighting materials, gestures, and processes. If I’m not photographing in the field, I install objects in my studio, and then the archeological method is reversed and analysis becomes design.

I’m not convinced that pictures tell stories. I rarely seek to convey a message in an individual image, though I believe a certain kind of statement does emerge as a matter of scale over the course of several series of many images.

In my case, it is often about the lifecycle of objects in the grand scheme of global economic forces, and how those intersect with the design choices of individual humans.