Disserendipity
A Broken World
Disserndipity is a place where all roads have travelled, all stones have been turned over. In disserendipity, everything has been named. It is a place filled with facts, where the unknown has been felled by the giant double edged sword of the internet, eradicated by the cyclone of the ever connected 24/7 digital world.
As the world becomes more connected, it grows ever smaller. Too easy is it to make a few swipes and taps on a smart phone and discover where you are and what you think you need to know. Too easy is it to go through life safely ensconced behind a screen, secure in the knowledge that all things are known or knowable. It is no longer possible to be lost, either physically or intellectually, so nothing can be discovered by serendipity.
My photographs serve as allegorical representations of the modern world, where no matter where you are, there is always a signpost to point you on your way. I began this series of photographs a few years ago, when I was walking on a rural gravel road near my house. I stopped at an intersection of two roads and photographed the signpost, and was struck by how orderly the world had become, with signposts everywhere, both physical and emotional. It is perhaps a jaded, adult view of the world, where we are awash in information, but almost none of it has any context.
What is needed sometimes is to tear down the signposts and wander freely and aimlessly through a wilderness, lost and ignorant to rediscover happenstance and serendipity.
Disserendipity images were created with film based medium format cameras, and prints were produced with double weight fiber base paper in a traditional wet darkroom. The prints are selenium toned and processed to an archival standard.