Honey is one of the few substances on earth that never spoils. Honey found in an ancient Egyptian tomb is safe to eat today. Of course, human flesh and beauty last just a short moment in the grand scheme of life and time. It is the combination of the two that fascinates me: what happens when this amazing natural substance is dripped, poured and dumped from buckets onto skin. The transformation is amazing in how it changes, distorts and amplifies the human body and raises questions of immortality, death, physical perfection and repulsion.

Preservation began through a process of experimenting with honey. Initially, I started photographing the way it pours and drips on just the face or specific areas of the body. After several photo sessions it became clear that completely covering the figure as much as possible and with varying thicknesses created a quality that I had never seen before. The honey has away of diffusing the personal qualities of the subjects, often making them unrecognizable and democratizing their individual traits into something altogether different and universal. The images take on the qualities of objects preserved in resin or amber; frozen in suspended action like the victims of the A.D. 79 Pompeii volcano. The subject becomes like a statue or an embryo, some angelic and others horrific.

There is a weight to the honey. It is quite heavy and when it is poured on the subject’s face and body, they are forced to close their eyes because it stings and open their mouth to gasp air because the honey blocks their nasal passages. It is a grueling, intense process and with the eyes closed, some of the normal human emotion is lost. It is replaced by the emotional power of the various desperate or ecstatic physical responses to the sheets of honey falling onto them.

While editing the work, I discovered the images organically referenced works from art history and popular culture, from Rodin, Vermeer, FrancisBacon, the German Expressionists, the volcanic figures of Pompeii to the Ohio Players mid-‘70s funk record Honey.

Preservation captured international attention with a successful gallery show at the Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles while the accompanying video caused a social media sensation with more than 3.8 million views on YouTube. The Preservation monograph sold out in 10 months.
‍
AWARDS
‍
2015
Benny Award, Printing Industry of America for Preservation

2013
Int’l Photography / Lucie Foundation Award 2nd Place for Preservation

2012
American Photography AP29, Catherine, 2012 from Preservation

EXHIBITION

2015
Preservation, Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA