B E S T I L L
Be Still.
This series uses imagery influenced by the American puritanical societies as depicted by Arthur Miller and Nathaniel Hawthorne. By referencing the often insidious nature of homogeneous separatist colonies of the 1600s, I wanted to tell a story that goes beyond this historical time and place of systemic oppression and show how it is passed down by authority figures and often painted as loving tradition. Atrocities performed in the attempt to wash away the perceived sins of others.
In this series, many of the photographs contain a frame within the shot to create a sense of removal as someone slowly realizes that their own ideals do not line up with what they were always taught was the righteous way. This is not a story that died in the colonies hundreds of years ago. Millions wish to dissent, but must remain silent for fear of being ostracized or killed.
Tender intimacy in the shots convey a sense of someone both part of and apart from the culture into which they were born. This disparity creates a sense that the scenes portrayed are not a linear, but rather moments that could happen seconds, years, or centuries from one another in a culture ever resistant to aberration.