My photographs address the idea of identity expressed through physical presence and attempt to capture the experience of being by myself, revealing aspects of personality through visual intimacy. Through self-portraiture, an inherently self-conscious process, I have attempted to create the most genuine relationship possible with the camera, such that it parallels and demonstrates the relationship I have with myself.

This series fits conceptually in a larger context of photographers such as Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Diane Arbus, who captured the lives and visages of individuals outside the mainstream society in an intimate, but respectful way. It is not my intent to document myself as a member of a minority or marginalized group in the way that Mapplethorpe described homosexuality and rough trade, but rather to underscore the intense uniqueness of every person's experience. Visually, they relate to the work of John Coplans and the nature-based abstractions of Edward Weston. By cropping and getting close as a way to focus on details and specific aspects of the subject, I show that even insignificant moments in one's daily life can ultimately be those which reveal the most about who one is, providing the greatest insight into identity.

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