Casket Portraits

2019

Casket Portraits: I recently began experimenting with different burial techniques both symbolic and real. I have been studying funeral rites and passages across cultures for a long time, but my interest in moving beyond research into practice came with the recent realization that we humans may have overstayed our welcome on this planet.

I began this series of portraits by constructing a Plexiglas casket, a material I have used as a framing device throughout my career. I sited the casket in a desert landscape and posed both inside and outside, conjuring both entombment and levitation. The result is a group of images that draw attention to the fragility of humans and the planet at once.