Artist Statement

I often consider how brief and seemingly random encounters can change the course of one’s destiny. Photography to me is a means to capture such singular events - occurrences from my daily life, world history, art and science. Stolen from oblivion by an optical apparatus, often concealed so as not to disturb the goings on, those digitally frozen moments seek to arrest the viewers and invite them to look at quotidian details with new eyes and so maybe even post them to new destinies.

Work Statement

«Coup d'Oeil», a term mostly used in the military, literally «Stroke of Eye», consists of multiple folios, originally conceived as Instagram posts, by now numbering more than 400, «The Park» and «Strangers» among them.

«The Park» is shot from an eye-in-the sky perspective, safely distanced up in my Chinatown studio. «Strangers» finds me embedded in the streets, an inconspicuous person with a covert camera. Serendipitous daily snapshots, they present a comprehensive personal picture of the ephemeral reality of my neighborhood during the pandemic, its compelling and repelling scenes an unfolding theater, unaltered by the apparent presence of a lens.

Technical Statement

The photos in «Coup d'Oeil - The Park» are inside a dark square, the format of Instagram, the appropriate platform to match the swiftness of my glimpses onto the everyday urban landscape. I use a cheap Chinese telescope mounted on a cellphone, hence the round peephole format. Every photo is the result of a precarious act triggered by a chance distraction in my peripheral field of vision, a look away from the computer monitor down to Sara D. Roosevelt Park ... discovery ... anticipation ... decision to photograph ... scramble for the cellphone and optics ... assembly of the flimsy contraption ... focus and, if the subject hasn’t vanished yet, finally press the button.

«Coup d'Oeil - Strangers» are screen shots sourced from videos recorded with a low res camera watch worn on my wrist. With literally no control over the composition, the pictorial harvest, mostly picked up on my way to the studio, is as fortuitous as the encounters themselves. 

I have transferred over 300 posts to print. Edited with an Android photo app, they simulate water colors or copper prints, a look paired up with the use of ink instead of the traditional silver, the substrate an adhesive backed fabric that can be quick-mounted directly onto a wall.