There’s nothing like a political campaign to exacerbate our existential concerns. In the fall of 2024, I began work on Dislocated, a collection of 16 diptychs pairing environmental portraits with distressed urban settings. The project inspired me to try something new — rendering the diptychs in mixed media. I opted to print the portraits on plexiglass and display the backgrounds on metal (my preferred surface). The only question was how best to connect these disparate layers while accentuating the collage's effect.
As I prepared the images for my photo group’s exhibition, called A Measure of Uncertainty, at San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Photo Center through Feb. 21st, I explored various ways to present the layers. I tried magnets, but they didn’t separate the layers well. I tried edge standoffs to connect the layers, which worked, but they lacked the stability to withstand the rigors of a gallery show.
After evaluating these methods, I asked an expert framer (Orion in S.F.) to create a window box to securely hold and separate the layers. They made it possible to slide the plexiglass in the frame, which is fun, but, as I’ve learned, the plexi is sensitive to fingerprints.
Meanwhile, I want to congratulate my 21 amazing colleagues in the Bay Area Photography Collective (BAPC), who also have images in the show, which was superbly curated by Heather Snider. I also want to give a shoutout to Melissa Castro Keesor, the talented director of the Harvey Milk Photo Center. I hope you’ll check it out when you have time.