Subject is RJ Lane, a track athlete I met while at Lamar University. I lent him my clothes for the shoot and we found an abandoned warehouse in Port Arthur, Texas with no roof. From there I set the camera in one place on a tripod, and directed RJ to move to very specific locations within the frame in various poses, with the idea of conveying different versions of one person in different mental/emotional states - I wanted to avoid the cliche of mania, so for the most part the expressions are tame - the mind isn't a 'hell', but more of a limbo.
I took 10 images in total, and used photoshop to merge them seamlessly.
Subject is myself, the first pack of cigarettes I ever bought, and a mixed drink in a random dive bar I came across in Beaumont, Texas. I walked in with my camera gear and asked if I could take some pictures, and they accepted! The concept is incredibly simple if not overstated, with smoking and alcohol taking center stage in presentation of unhealthy vices - but the bread and butter here is the first-person presentation, which required me to set a timer for 10 seconds on my camera and wrap my arms around the tripod, flick-start a lighter, and light a cigarette. It took more than a few tries. The imagery is topped off by extreme saturation, DoF and zoom-blur on the edges of the images to imply that our subject is far from sober.
Subject is two men, their work truck, and a pack of Miller Lite. I was originally looking to photograph the outside of a Waffle House, but had trouble finding a decent angle. Across the parking lot, there were two men that I thought seemed very interesting, so I approached them and asked if I could take some pictures of them. They were linemen from Louisiana travelling through Texas for work, and they hadn't been back for months. The theme of tradition present here is simple, in the southern spirit of sharing a beer with a close friend next to your pickup truck. In this image, I feel I've captured a piece of what makes America, America.
Subject is one of my close friends, Jordan, at a very well lit basketball court in the middle of the night. If you can't tell already, I love merging two or more images together, so for this one I decided to go with the idea of an angel/devil on the proverbial shoulder - although the bread and butter here is in the visual presentation, with the theme closer to an afterthought.
A "Tutelary" can refer to a patron or a guide, which at it's core is what the angel/devil on shoulders represent. The halo and horns were done with a simple, native photoshop magic.
Subject is a toy red car on a dust-covered cabinet next to dust-covered porcelain ducks. Although the metaphor is plastered over the background of the image, a lot of the magic in this image comes from the photoshop additions - an exhaust pipe and smoke, and a person sitting inside the toy car. There's a strong emphasis on texture in this close-up, from the wood grain of the cabinet to the crisp details of the toy car.
Subject is Kay, a friend I made at a midnight poetry slam. I wanted to tackle illness in a very obscure, ambiguous manner that anybody could easily identify with. "Infirmity" refers to physical or mental weakness, well depicted by Kay in this sickly-green color graded shot where our subject sits on a bathroom sink next to a first-aid kit, somewhat hunched over to infer something is physically wrong. Her reflection takes on a different pose, implying a mental instability as well.
Subjects are a few of my family members in my childhood kitchen, directed to adopt poses that depict a grandmother at her wits end with her grandchildren. This scene alone implies a deeper story - why does the grandmother have the children? What is being said? Is she threatening them with the pan in her left hand, or is she about to cook with the box of rice in her right hand? Is that apathy on the childrens face, or nervousness?
Subject is Jordan, one of my close friends, inside of a yet-to-be-renovated H.E.B. Supermarket. This image depicts two scenes, a wide shot of our subject hunched over his empty shopping basket, staring at the few dollars in his hands, and a closeup POV shot of those dollars. It infers a story of a sad yet common dilemma for poverty-low income Americans - not having enough money for basic things like food and water. Muted, yellow/green color grading, equally muted color swatch bars on either side of the images to invoke a vintage, nostalgic vibe to the hopelessness.
Subject is two of my close friends, Wynstan and Jordan. I recruited them to help me tackle alcoholism as a theme - we went to a bar because thats where liquor is, and began shooting. I liked the crystalline nature of the Bacardi bottle and the shot glasses, so I decided to make the brand the focus alongside Jordan who was directed to act unconsciously inebriated, and Wynstan as a bystander who is recording this folly. This picture was overexposed, but instead of scrapping it I decided to play into the excess of light and introduce typography: "If you're not drinking Bacardi, drink responsibly. Or drink Bacardi instead."
