In my work I photograph subjects, then reconfigure them to create new forms, in essence taking a representation of a real thing that exists in the world and constructing a new reality from it.

The result is an image of an organic, self-contained object (or space) that now stands on its own yet never entirely sheds its original identity. I’m ultimately interested in the ways these elemental images interrelate as a newer, more perfect whole: a portrait of an impossible reality.

To me, this relates to the way in which books communicate to us. They are fascinating devices that depend on each reader’s inner visualization to fully create the realities they suggest. Those visualizations, uniquely specific to the individual reading the book, are also impossible realities.

Books are also evocative in their varied manifestations as physical objects, and particular combinations of a book’s contents and a specific edition’s tangible qualities can be quite compelling, as anyone who has browsed a library or used bookstore can attest. The photographs in this series are meant to celebrate each book’s considerable beauty as a physical object while simultaneously exposing, illustrating or commenting on the themes contained within each title, and giving a physical shape to the ineffable qualities each text brings to the reader, whether short story, novel, poem or legend.