Several years ago, my husband and I had a miserable fight fraught with drama and fury. He slammed the door and walked out, declaring loudly that he wanted a divorce. The next morning, I stood at the front of my classroom. When I opened my mouth to lecture, I instead burst into tears. The only thing I could see and hear were Rilke’s words about Orpheus and Euridyce.

The god put out his hand to stop her, saying, with sorrow in his voice: He has turned around--, she could not understand, and softly answered Who?

I, Orfeo represents my attempt to process that which I did not expect and I could not–even now, several years later–conceive; a visual allusion to what I felt and experienced. Creating it was heart-wrenching, challenging, and yet strangely affirming; filled with despair as well as catharsis. In telling only one side of a two-person tale, “I, Orfeo" simultaneously reveals and occludes. By revealing the inherent duality contained within a one-sided telling, it conveys the dichotomy found in perception, memories, and photography itself. 

PROCESS: I, Orfeo is a work that I began the first week of October, 2015.  The photographs here represent the entire story, but only some of the images. Ultimately, I intend to create a small edition handmade artist photobook using the complete series. Over time, I refined the ideas from a series of individual portraits to a series of diptychs consisting mainly of a human presence paired with a landscape.

DIMENSIONS: Each half is framed in a black wood floating frame and is 18" w x 22" h x 1.75"d.