this is deeply personal. but it needs to be done.

every time i've brought up this project up for discussion with friends and loved ones, i am shocked by the different responses it conjures up. some are supportive, others shocked, even angry / confused about the idea. for me, art is deeply personal. it is a reflection of the human condition. some might call it exploitation or taboo, but it is none of that i promise you, especially if it's something so embedded in you and needs to be released.

i've been haunted by this project for years... thinking about ways to approach the subject, how to make it consumable by others when it is so hard to even comprehend sometimes. but most importantly, i've thought long and hard about how to take something so harsh and make it poetic, tangible, and meaningful.

this is a series of collaborative portrait series based on the human psyche, on mental health, trauma and ways of coping. i've asked a selected group of individuals to participate; to share their story, a loved one's story, or even a memory. as a result, these series of one-on-one interview sessions became the mold from where the project took shape and began to develop.

i am forever indebted to these individuals for taking the chance and doing this with me - my life is so much more enriched now that we share this project together. my goal is to keep going with this... to take something hard to stomach and over time, turn it into something cathartic and consumable for the individual. not in an naive "all better now" way, but as a form of therapy turned into art. it's the only way i know to deal with life, and it's perhaps the most important work of art i'll ever do.

*// this project is on-going, and therefore not all of the stories or photographs are ready for publishing... however, i have decided to share the beginnings of some of these stories with you because they stand alone so well just in the written form. more to come soon... //*