When working on my Master of Fine Arts degree, I’d wonder around San Francisco trying to figure out how to complete my next homework photo assignments.  “Go shoot fear, print it and turn it in next week for critique,” my Concepts professor would say.  I’d always start with zero ideas, then I’d walk around the city.  The giant department store window displays always piqued my interest, with the mannequins inside showing off the latest fashion trends.  Other sights and sounds would permeate my senses, creating made-up stories followed by lots of questions.  These made-up stories fueled my various projects.  One story about models and their children friends stuck with me, which turned into my Thesis project titled Play Date.  It all started from a question - what it would be like if a mannequin befriended a child?  Then, more questions began bubbling up, such as:

• What would a day in their life be like?

• How would the two interact?

• What kind of role would the mannequin play in the child’s life and vice-versa?

• What kind of reaction would the rest of the world have to this strange relationship?

Keep in mind for context, the word “mannequin” can easily be a living model, or the plastic-like statues found in the windows displays.  After ruminating on this story a bit, I set out to create a series of photos telling the stories of models and their children-friends.

Play Date conveys a strong sense of design using shapes, linear perspective, implied and psychic lines.  The primary purpose of the imagery is art for commerce, meaning calling attention to fashion, through the use of use of contrast, by inserting uncommon clothes in everyday environments.  Through composition, light and styling, my goal was to either make the fashion contrast or relate to the surrounding environment.  As the project and I evolved, I started to incorporate my own subtle commentaries on various social, interpersonal and/or psychological topics.  All photos were created between 2009-2011.