Pinograms, 2026
This series explores the threshold between the photographic image and the sculptural object through a physical intervention with the silver gelatin print. Operating without a camera, the process begins by methodically piercing the photographic paper with ballhead pins. Through this tactile engagement, the paper is transformed from a passive receptor of light into an active, three-dimensional matrix, with the pins carefully curated to create precise geometric arrangements across the surface.
Exposed beneath the focused, directional beam of an enlarger, the pins cast sharp, elongated shadows. When the metal objects are temporarily extracted and the paper subjected to chemical development, their absence is rendered as luminous, stark silhouettes—white shadows permanently fixed within the darkened emulsion. This indexical trace records not only the physical boundaries of the pins but also the precise angle and intensity of the light that momentarily washed over them.
The conceptual tension of the work culminates in its final gesture of reintegration. The original bullhead pins are meticulously reinserted into their exact sites of puncture, physically reuniting the tangible metal objects with their own photographic ghosts. Framed together under glass, the final composition collapses the boundary between reality and representation, resulting in a hybrid object where the physical specimen remains eternally tethered to its own shadow.