hali autumn
Upcoming Exhibitions:I Write with the Body
October 1- 14, 2025
Opening Reception -
October 2, 5-8pm
PNCA, Portland
RESOLUTIONS OF TORMENT (ROT) ~ Briar
ROT traces the spectral lineage of femininity in photography, extending the 19th and 20th century tradition of spirit photography; an alchemical practice that sought to render the immaterial visible by interrogating how photographic and moving images negotiate mortality, time, and dissolution. The feminist framework for this project is rooted in my own lived experience and that of my subjects. Through analog techniques, I unearth what I percieve as mystical or ephemeral traces -hauntings- of both myself and the subjects. The resulting images are not just portraits; they are evidence for memory, intuition, and the lingering weight of emotions. For those that take part in this ongoing study, we ground the imagery in trust and a shared sensitivity to the unseen.
ROT traces the spectral lineage of femininity in photography, extending the 19th and 20th century tradition of spirit photography; an alchemical practice that sought to render the immaterial visible by interrogating how photographic and moving images negotiate mortality, time, and dissolution. The feminist framework for this project is rooted in my own lived experience and that of my subjects. Through analog techniques, I unearth what I percieve as mystical or ephemeral traces -hauntings- of both myself and the subjects. The resulting images are not just portraits; they are evidence for memory, intuition, and the lingering weight of emotions. For those that take part in this ongoing study, we ground the imagery in trust and a shared sensitivity to the unseen.
This work is, in many ways, is a form of storytelling. It gives shapes to experiences that are deeply human, such as feelings of longing, disconnection, resiliance and tenderness. These lived realities , while individual, are also collective, and this is the place in which the feminist underpinnings of this project emerge. The images attempt to create a visual language that honors the complexities of being seen and of seeing someone else in return.
Photography, as both a physical and conceptual medium, offers a space where absence can assume form, where body becomes an imprint rather than a fixed entity. The self, within this, is not recorded but transfigured, echoing across exposures, chemical intervention, and layers. The darkroom, like the unconscious, reveals what lingers ...what haunts. In this space of becoming, the image is never final; instead it dissolves and reconstitutes itself, embodying tension between existence and erasure. The resulting prints exist as ruins, as artifacts of this tension, of this transference.
From the moment they are brought into form, they begin; they evoke a connection to mystical traditions and initiation ceremonies. The prints then emphasize the idea that ritualistic and intentional performances occured here and may serve as symbolic representations of deeper, incommunicable spiritual truths. While these rituals may be dramatized or externalized in the production, they still create a psychological or spiritual state and the initiation can lead to actual mystical experience (provided the individual and myself is sufficiently prepared for this).
Photography, as both a physical and conceptual medium, offers a space where absence can assume form, where body becomes an imprint rather than a fixed entity. The self, within this, is not recorded but transfigured, echoing across exposures, chemical intervention, and layers. The darkroom, like the unconscious, reveals what lingers ...what haunts. In this space of becoming, the image is never final; instead it dissolves and reconstitutes itself, embodying tension between existence and erasure. The resulting prints exist as ruins, as artifacts of this tension, of this transference.
From the moment they are brought into form, they begin; they evoke a connection to mystical traditions and initiation ceremonies. The prints then emphasize the idea that ritualistic and intentional performances occured here and may serve as symbolic representations of deeper, incommunicable spiritual truths. While these rituals may be dramatized or externalized in the production, they still create a psychological or spiritual state and the initiation can lead to actual mystical experience (provided the individual and myself is sufficiently prepared for this).