PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: And After All That, My ARTIST STATEMENT

As I grow older, I am increasingly fascinated by the changes brought upon by age. All humans are bound by the limits of mortality, but it is the experiences of our lifetimes that differentiate us.

Photographs are capable of capturing the ethereal even as they record the banal. With a click of the shutter, one may freeze forever the essence of a single moment in time, perhaps revealing things that would not be noticeable in the tumult of ordinary life. Photographs can expose the layers that life experience has created upon the face, or the impressions that the labor of living has left upon the body. I find these imperfections beautiful, and feel impelled to capture their many varieties.

In order to better understand my subjects, I interviewed all of them - first, I found out their names, jobs, and ages; then, I asked them three questions pertaining, respectively, to their past, present, and future. Their responses were intended to enrich the viewer's visual interpretation of each subject, and to raise questions about how their appearances, affected by age, intersect with their life experiences. I did my best to vary the subjects' genders, ages, and socioeconomic statuses as much as possible. Directly after the interviews, I took as many photographs of the subjects as time would permit.

This project has opened my eyes to the hopes and worries of dozens of New Yorkers. Few experiences in my life have been quite as powerful as that of strangers opening their hearts to me while they consider what it is that they value in their lives. It turns out that most people know the answers to these complex questions almost intuitively, barely having to think about their responses. I have discovered that age plays a significant role in determining what is important to people. This is largely a result of the changing structures of peoples' lives as they age: for example, older people are more likely to have their own families, which seem to be very significant for many of them.

I hope that this project will allow people to see both how comfortingly similar and how wonderfully unique we all are. In a city as enormous as New York, one may often feel lost among the crowds; I would like to remind people that they are not alone.