Lesser Chains (of Being) stems from my long-standing skepticism regarding photography and its relationship to mass culture. Though I was trained in traditional darkroom methods, and having early on pursued direct, documentary, decisive-moment style image making, I became wary of the ease with which images could be used to manipulate society. I felt a need to rebuild my practice, tossing out anything I deemed inessential. To this end, I temporarily abandoned both the camera and the world external to the darkroom.
Early images from Lesser Chains were as simple and direct of photographic experiences as I could articulate; they are the record of the choreography of my body engaging with the chemistry and space of the darkroom. Slowly, I began to re-incorporate the use of the camera in documenting the world, albeit in a different way. Fragments of architecture began to appear as grounds in some of these prints.
