To Be Found (2020-21)

To Be Found was originally a project created through investigating my personal archives, specifically images of moments from 2017-2018 during my last years of high school. Utilizing these images, I focused on the idea of deconstructing the photographs in order to create a sense of healing and peace from a life that feels foreign. There is a sense of nostalgia present in the images, working as a personal archive in the realm of vernacular photography.

I continued investigating youth through the archives of other Generation Zs and Millennials within my own community. Our generations are more influenced by image culture and have become better at image reproduction, through image making and the ways we occupy space than past generations. Physical mediums such as cut-and-paste offer a tactile aspect to the photographs, which in turn allows for the creation of new narratives in the images. While utilizing tactility to amplify the narratives of growth, searching and regret, the physical aspect also allows for photographic art to be experienced beyond what is visible. The photographs, alongside images and text from magazines and photo media, are used in a collage piece in a similar way Carmen Winant uses wall space for presenting finished collage works in her series Body/Index, Stene Projects. This body of work is meant to be a meditation on the means of acknowledging the direct effects of media and image culture’s influence on youth.