"...if the whole life of many people is lived unconsciously, it is as if this life had never been."
— Leo Tolstoy

Reusable Shopping Bag / Daylight / Scanner, 2026

Squeegee / Color Transparency / Daylight / Scanner, 2026

Plastic Chair / Concrete Pillar / Daylight / Projector, 2026

Tools / Wooden Table / Daylight / Flashlight, 2026

Rain Jacket / Steel Spring Clip / Dried Eryngium Bunch / Light Stand / Dry Wall / UV Flashlight, 2026

Power Cords / Linoleum Floor / Daylight / Flashlight, 2026

Banana / Steel Whisk / Chopsticks / Squeegee / Color Transparencies / Daylight / Scanner, 2026

Food Residue / Steel Pan / Steel Tongs / Glass Lid / Cooktop / Daylight / Flashlight, 2026

Twisted Mason Twine / Nitrile Glove / Scissors / Sheets of Paper / Daylight / Scanner, 2026

Rubber Mallet with Wooden Handle / Steel Wire / Drinking Glass / Fleece Pullover / Daylight / Scanner, 2026

Drinking Glasses / Color Transparencies / Daylight / Flashlight / Scanner, 2026

Recent still-life experiments exploring abstraction through a scanner, projector, flashlight, UV light, and thermal imaging.

My first experience with still-life photography during the pandemic felt underwhelming (see below). A second attempt three years later wasn't much more successful. But when I returned to it this past spring, something had changed. The process became unexpectedly engaging and creatively rewarding. The difference was learning to see everyday objects not simply as things, but as raw material for transformation.

Reading Viktor Shklovsky's writings on defamiliarization (ostranenie)—the idea of making the familiar strange—provided a more meaningful point of departure. Beyond combining unexpected objects, I've experimented with a range of unconventional tools and techniques, including a scanner, projector, flashlight, UV light, and thermal imaging, to push ordinary subjects toward abstraction and ambiguity.

Still-life photography has become a way to explore form, shape, color, and light, while also reflecting on broader philosophical ideas, such as the fleeting nature of material pleasures. Alongside beauty and abstraction, I've discovered another quality worth pursuing in everyday objects: strangeness. Sometimes, making the familiar unfamiliar reveals possibilities that were there all along.

A fork, spoon, and egg sit on top of an orange vase atop a black dumbbell, blue plate and a square mirror, sitting on a covered table with dramatic shadows and lighting creating abstract shapes on the wall.

A blurred shadow of a fork and a round red object on a scratched, translucent surface with soft lighting.

Dried, twisted branches rest in the corner of a dimly lit room, casting long, intricate shadows on the white walls and dark wooden floor.

A dark, moody photo shows a paper plate with a plastic fork, knife, and spoon arranged in it, set on a wrinkled fabric surface. Soft light and shadows create a dramatic, high-contrast effect.

A dark, moody photo showing a dark silver metal table with sharp edges and a red plastic chair underneath, partially illuminated, on a dark wooden floor.

Black and white photo of metal wire basket casting geometric shadows on a surface, with overlapping patterns created by light and basket, and part of a dark, rounded object in the lower right corner.

Early still-life attempts from 2021.

Making Strange

Transit, Gesture, Reflection