Flowers Simply Bloom (2014) was independently produced over a few months around my graduation from the University of Michigan. Using a borrowed Canon Rebel, I photographed parties, social gatherings, and eventually staged scenes in and around Ann Arbor. The images are completely unedited, and were produced entirely using unconventional in-camera methods; hand-held long exposures, altered white balance, distorted focus, laser pointers, toy lights, etc. When I think of this work now, what strikes me is the fundamental impulse to push the camera apparatus beyond standard convention in order to create new ways of seeing. This novel visual language, without consciously intending so, came to reflect the altered states of mind so prevalent at the time.
The photographs were compiled into a series of three magazines produced in limited edition and distributed to friends around campus and showcased informally. Some experimental stop-motion video was produced as well.
Click through images for magazine previews.