Revisiting
Revisiting is a photobook, a metaphor, a process, sculptural. The work is the culmination of nearly three years spent investigating my feelings about mass shootings and the dark side of human nature. The title refers both to the action of going to over 30 sites where shootings have occurred and to my own reckoning with the material, seeking a shape for my experiences which raised questions about the role of photography and the media in violence, how tragedies are depicted and visualized, and the consequences of this representation. What form could I give to ideas about how individuals process trauma and how to reconcile the presence of evil.
A pivotal moment happened when I realized that I had to look inward as well as out. Rather than looking at a perpetrator as other, as if there were an enormous rift between me and a mass killer, I had to examine the ways in which we are interconnected. All the elements in this book are about blurring perceived barriers. Every element is deeply considered, from the choice of paper with its swirling fiber inclusions that look like scars or broken glass, to how the book is stitched together, a method known as stab binding.
There are moments when the viewer is the voyeur, aiming your sites. Some images are layered with the special film used by schools and offices to provide safety for the inhabitants. It functions like a mirror, so the viewer first encounters him or herself. You are not separate from this, you are part of the story. Another layer contains an image taken from the mass media’s depiction of the event, referencing how our perception is altered by the power of media and how these projections become inseparable from a location.
There are ten sites of mass shootings referenced within Revisiting and multiple approaches to the work. Ultimately, my hope is that the viewers will experience the fluctuation between darkness and light, pessimism and optimism, and contemplate the bridges that we share.