noun: a play or part of a play with speaking roles
for only two actors
2017 - ongoing
I love to wander the streets and observe people. My series, Duologues, records fragments of these encounters. It is a play between two images creating meanings belonging to neither— a discovery process each viewer interprets differently. Reminiscent of the idea of synchronicity, an idea that describes meaningful coincidences, my pairings intentionally produce uncanny relationships.
Shooting intuitively and spontaneously, my eyes lock onto the unusual, the outstanding, and even the mundane. Frequently, dramatic lighting shapes the photographs. I collect the unrelated pieces like stems in a wildflower field - disconnected, yet bound together by their place of origin. The visuals seem familiar but particulars will distinguish them from the common.
I match the images by playing a game of Memory: finding in each image shapes, gestures, and symbols that rhyme. The rhyming may occur within the major elements in the image, such as the subject, or in minute details that otherwise might go unnoticed. By pairing two photos that occurred at different moments in time, the story that emerges can bring them together. The final sequence feels deeply connected, even though the encounters on the street were random.
2021 - ongoing
As I observe the pedestrian continuum passing by me, I recall a line from Hermann Hesse’s *Siddhartha*: “Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence.”
When I moved from Germany to the U.S., my world transformed seamlessly from muted gray to bursts of color— from sameness to a tapestry of differences. In Rallentando,
I explore visual recollections and peripheral perception of serendipitous street encounters. Subjects drift in and out of focus—a downward gaze, a hand carrying a cake, a lock of curly hair—fleeting yet intimate glimpses of everyday life. With my camera, I quiet the noise of New York’s bustling streets, transforming pedestrians passing by into musical notes within the symphony of everyday life— rallentando, a gradual slowing of tempo.
I sequence these images—captured in varying stages of clarity—to reveal the city street as a systematic collection of impressions. I organize the grids by color—red brick, green construction fencing, a yellow-lit window—urban backdrops that weave subjects together. These hues form a connective thread, remind us that we are more alike than different, that individual experiences exist as fragments of a greater whole.
Photography serves as my meditation and as a reminder, to be mindful through heightened awareness. It grounds me in the present, shifting my focus away from the weight of the past or the pull of the future. My pictures allow viewers to re-contextualize the chaos of the city into something that opens their eyes to everyday moments of beauty. Through its focus on candid moments in public spaces, Rallentando suggests that the distinctiveness of individuals within a communal space can build a harmonious composition.
