Six and Out explores the materiality of photography as a means of replacing absent individual memory. Answering my need to include the virtual presence of someone or something absent, Six and Out is dedicated to the fear of forgetting or being forgotten. The image speaks of my own state of nostalgic reverie – my visual experience of absence. It represents both my desire to have seen and my longing to have known. Telling stories about our past is integral to the making of our selves. The stories that this image represents provide a narrative for my experiences and sense of self: they tell of where I come from, why I am, and how I am and am not part of all that has gone before. The time, and therefore the story, belongs to the past, yet its meaning, and what compels its telling, is mine.
NYSPP 2010