Vessels
Intersections in Human Migration, Identity, and Allegory
A series in progress, Vessels chronicles individuals from Jackson Heights, one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods on earth where over 160 languages are spoken, crafting a site-specific visual ethnography [non-exclusively] referencing identity, belonging, memory, and place.
This series emanated from my profound emotional reaction to the policy of child-family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border during the prior U.S. administration. Becoming a father in that era, the daily narratives and imagery of children wrenchingly separated from their parents or kin deeply moved me, stirring raw emotions.
As I began to aleatorily fragment and reassemble ephemeral trains in the sky in post-production, the series organically evolved into a stream-of-consciousness visual allegory echoing the delirium-induced journeys of immigrants who brave continents and oceans in death-defying odysseys in a utopian attempt to enter an unwelcoming West.
By capturing the Other in this emblematic American setting, I explore a vibrant human archaeology of place. This challenges, I believe, entrenched perceptions of or even the very essence of the idea of an Americanness. Notably, many individuals documented in Vessels are deeply anchored to this expansive continent, birthed on lands that stretch from Patagonia to Alaska, with ancestral lines spanning 35,000 years.
In this endeavor, I've consciously veered from traditional photojournalistic paths, drawing from literary and artistic palettes to craft a [non-fictional] visual haiku and narrative anchored in truth.
Beyond the portraits, each composition intricately integrates fragments of still-life nuances: the surfaces and texture of trains, architectural whispers of the station, portraits of dismembered American flags, traces of urban life, graffiti, detritus, and the surrounding architecture. Bar the portraits, every image undergoes a unique aleatory fragmentation in post-production, layered to coexist in shared spaces, transcending traditional collage. Each artwork melds over twenty photographic fragments. My reverence for the Latin American mural traditions of my formative years has inspired a unique post-production methodology, enabling me to produce prints that, even at sizes exceeding 90 inches, radiate with impeccable detail.
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PRINT INFO
Image Size: 90 x 72 in - 228.6 x 182.8 cm or Larger
Medium: Photography
Media: Dye Sublimation Aluminum Print from Griffin Editions
Edition of 3
Email: marco@ma9.co
Tel: 347.772.9370 in New York City