More Than Love, 2019-2020

More Than Love is my photographic series dealing with loss, trauma, and acceptance through the Mordançage process.

My decade-long partner unexpectedly and abruptly left, shattering all that I knew in an instant. Fragmented and alone, I began to doubt my perception of reality and question everything I thought I knew to be true. With this betrayal of disconnection, I felt insignificant, invisible, as if I no longer existed.

As I began to rebuild my life, I willed myself to transform. I discovered Mordançage, a destructive photographic technique that parallels this personal transformation. I go into the darkroom, knowing my original gelatin silver print will not survive. For my eyes alone, shadows rise, light anchors, some parts remain, others wash away. I guide and encourage this process, but the chance elements of chemistry also have a say. I form an intimate connection to each piece, and then I release it to be its own success. Accepting that loss is inevitable allows me to relinquish the illusion of control, overcome fears, and be fully present in the moment.

As an assemblage of unique photographic objects, More Than Love documents these intimate darkroom encounters. This work is my mirror, a testament to my recurring surrenders to the exigencies of light and chemistry.