The Lake (2016-present) is an ongoing photographic series inspired by a lake that has multigenerational significance to my family. Comprised of portraiture, still lives and landscapes, The Lake occupies the boundary between memory and imagination, exploring the evolving relationship between people and their natural environment and how the visceral connection between psyche and place shapes identity, memory and the perception of time. Shot with various analogue family cameras, The Lake continues a tradition of collective storytelling and memory-making both in process and form, expressing a legacy of shared, subjective landscapes formed through interwoven experiences over an extended period of time.

When a place is revisited, it becomes a touchstone – physically, emotionally, temporally – making the lake, in this series, both a clock and a well. The lake appears to be monumental and permanent, but like people, it is never static, so as they come and go with the seasons, and the lake’s water levels, shorelines and wetlands shift, a synergy occurs, through which internal, mirror landscapes form. Like people, the lake exhibits many changes, contradictions and juxtapositions, metamorphosing many times throughout a day through a broad range of colors and textures. The lake’s water is clear, but deep – it clarifies as it obscures. When its surface freezes, life moves below. Though nearly imperceptible, tides run deep within it. The Lake traces a landscape that evokes the ebb and flow of human emotion, the permutations of memory and the mysteries of the subconscious mind.

Shot over an 8-year period on paper and film in multiple formats with a variety of handmade pinhole and analogue cameras, the process underlying The Lake is rooted in experimentation and alternative photographic techniques. The series includes silver gelatin prints, cyanotypes, giclée prints, etchings, collages, artist books and films. A small selection is presented here.