in case you get lost.

When I received a residency at the Great Park in Irvine, California I initially had no idea what to do with that time or money.

I had been thinking about ideas of the “lost person”, specifically the missing person posters in NYC that consumed every hangable surface after 9/11. The photographs on those fliers were grainy, dark, and smudgy images taken from processed prints of Thanksgiving dinners and first days at the new job. Posters whose very job was to aid in identification could not, by the very quality of reproduction, share a beauty mark above the lip on the left, bright blue eyes that dominated a smallish face, or scars from chickenpox prominently covering the forehead. I began to think about the ways in which technological advancements are used today to aid in the location of individuals based solely upon an accurate likeness.

This project consists of straight portraits made of the over 400 visitors to my studio space- direct eye contact with a neutral expression, more forensic than expressionistic. I printed two of each image and posted one on the wall in the studio and gave the other to a designated person who would keep that photograph safe, in case the person in the photo became lost. The subject could not keep their own photograph, another person had to be assigned responsibility for the image. I kept them in a binder for pick-up day, however, some of the visitors picked me as the person to take responsibility for their photographs. I consider this my duty and honor.