Ataxia
a·tax·i·a
/əˈtaksēə,āˈtaksēə/
noun
the loss of full control of bodily movements.
A Portrait Project Separating Mind and Body
Ataxia was the product of realizations on the layers of personalities we, as human beings, put up. It meditates on and abstracts these layers, in an attempt to boil them down. The process through which the photos were made was through long nights of portrait shooting in a photo studio. I shot in both digital and film, and when compiling the book, I simply chose the best photos of each person.
Getting the emotions I wanted out of the models was the most difficult part of the book. I didn’t want the emotions to be my own feelings about my layers of personality, I wanted it to be a more universal human reflection. So, the majority of the time spent shooting was discussing and encouraging the models to self-reflect and realize themselves before the camera even looked at them. One of the models, when he was not in front of the camera, laid on a table a stared at the ceiling for a long time. In a word, the production of these photographs was therapeutic. There is a soft acknowledgement underneath each one. I believe it is incredibly important to publicly and uncompromisingly share aspects of mental health and personality, as it leads to the breaking down of facades and a more truthful outlook on oneself.
Below, you can look at the book page by page. However, because many of the photographs span two pages, some will be cut in half. If you would be interested in getting a paper copy of the book, simply email me and we can discuss how to do that, since I don’t have an online store set up yet.
