The 100 Day Project #19

Invisible City - A Forty and a Barrel

Tucson, Arizona, USA, 2008

The 100 Day Project, Day 19

We tend to think of clarity as the goal — sharp edges, full information, a moment captured. In photography, it is often someone else's clarity that you gaze upon.

For me, I gravitate to images that I cannot quickly interpret. Artworks that force me to pause, to quiet my mind, to look, to find my own meaning.

We never have the whole picture — of a city, a person, a moment. We construct meaning from fragments, build understanding from the incomplete. But understanding shifts. Return to the same photograph a year later, a decade later, and something moves. Not in the image, but in you.

In this photograph I used the solar flare to lay a veil across the scene — to interrupt the viewer, to confuse, to cause them to question what they see. It’s an invitation to create their own narrative.

This photograph was made during The Invisible City, a five-week, site-specific experimental arts lab exploring public space in downtown Tucson. Co-directed by Lisa Bowden, the project was a collaboration between NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre and Kore Press, a Tucson-based feminist press. Through writing, dance, music, and visual art, we envisioned and activated new workspaces out of vacant parking lots, city plazas, and sidewalks. Our laboratory experiment culminated in a multidisciplinary performance incorporating video projection, spoken word, live music, and modern dance on the roof of a parking garage.

I loved being part of this project. Many of these photographs remain among my favorites — and I think it's because of the tension they hold. A body in motion against concrete and vacancy. Softness in a hard place. Art insisting on itself in a city that hadn't yet made room for it.

More from this project throughout this week.

About the 100 Day Project: A global creative challenge where thousands of artists share a piece of their practice every single day for 100 days. I'm joining creatives around the world, and I'm excited to bring you along. Each day I'll be sharing one of my photos — some recent, some old, and some from my current project — along with the story behind it: where I was, who I was with, and why I love it.