EX ASTRA
Stardust flows through our veins. The iron, oxygen, and carbon that comprise our bodies were forged long ago in the nuclear furnaces of stars. We enter this world — into sentience — in a convergence of storylines and stardusted bloodlines that have already stretched across deep time.
Driven by existential questions and a desire to reference the stories we inherit, I started making collage portraits adorned with reproductions of my subjects' personal snapshots. During these shoots, my sitters often share stories — truncated histories and disembodied slivers from entire lifetimes. Despite being preoccupied with my camerawork, I try to listen. The spoken words are important, but fragile, anchored only to exhaled breath. A residue of each shared story always remains. To memorialize these acts of storytelling, I also create collages depicting imaginary site-specific monuments.
This project is still in development. Prints by LightSourceSF