(work in progress)

As a child, I played war games, inventing storylines and reciting narratives from TV and films. Imaginary foes lurked around the corners. Fantastical characters could be controlled through a narrative borne of the imagination.

For this project, I manipulated the landscape of the set. The actors share a resemblance to their characters. In each image, I constructed a story that blends a documentary style with scripted actions. The landscapes project a bleak feeling, much like my early childhood memories of New York City. In these images, my memories are stretched into an apocalyptic world where trash infests the streets, weeds choke vacant lots, and society does not have the resources to clean up after itself. The future is unknown.

The settings include wide landscapes that dwarf the child actors within each image. Children appear small in this big world, swallowed by the larger landscape of adults. They play games in which they imagine themselves in adult roles that they may not fully grasp. Their smallness contrasts with the expanse of the landscape.

The contemporary narrative revolves around a common experience. My childhood memories are not unique, but when elaborated, this personal viewpoint becomes visually charged through the process of restaging and dramatization that reflects a shared experience and universal truth.