Exposed photographic paper and sun-exposed skin react in similar ways: Just as light used in the photographic process marks emulsion, the sun marks exposed skin. Imprinted: A Dance was originally conceived as a layered expression of this shared phenomenon, with the photographic process using light to create images of skin that has itself been marked and weathered by light. Skin can be marked not only by sun exposure, but also by the fullness of lived experience. Imprinted: A Dance captures the capacity of images, whether on photographic paper or on a body, to hold experience, memory, and story. 

I began this project with attention to a body in midlife. The project deepened as I worked with a woman in her eighties. My request—Would she allow me to take close-up pictures of her skin?—led to requests for more detailed information as the intimacy of photographing her body made me wonder about the sources of her scars. The marks on bodies hold memories and stories about childhood injuries, parents and grandparents, and experiences surrounding surgeries. During this process, photographs of the surfaces of skin evolved to incorporate linguistic and somatic elements of lives fully lived.

Macro photographs of the two women’s skin were printed as handmade, platinum palladium prints. My process involves painting a liquid emulsion on selected surfaces of the paper and then exposing the paper to ultraviolet light. The surfaces of the emulsion masked by dark parts of the negative are left unmarked by the light, while exposed surfaces are darkened, becoming visible, discernible. Then, using cotton thread, I knitted together the close-up prints of each woman’s body to form a “figure.” The two resulting figures are suspended in relationship, in a state of dance. Their intergenerational dialogue is further animated by the weaving together of the visual and the linguistic: marks on a body are invitations to memory, story, and speech. 

Photographs of front yards in Altadena, CA that represent a diversity of wealth, politics and culture in 2020-21, are hand-stitched together. Literal and figurative signs hint at the stories of each home’s unseen occupants, suggesting outward engagement or inward enclosure.