Photographed in around the city of Davis, CA, Vacancies explores the presences latent in empty nocturnal spaces across my adopted hometown. Interrogating the question of “what remains”, this work investigates both the physical nature of the city after dark and my own psychological response to creating a temporary life in America.
Drawing from work by photographers including Gregory Crewdson and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, whose images explore the “cinematic suburbia” of small-town America, Vacancies considers the importance of place in relation to identity. By enlisting the viewer as involuntary co-conspirator, the photographs ask whether what remains can be tangible and truthful, or whether memory and perception are inevitably creations.
Ultimately, moving through both public and private spaces, the images look to confront the viewer with oneself, and to recognise our gaze as both a physical and psychological presence in the work.
All images photographed on medium format film, and hand-printed on fibre paper.
Exhibited UC Davis 2014.