SEA is a collection of images created on a one-week trip I took to Mexico City in 2013. Throughout the trip, whether by accident or through negligence, all my cameras broke except for a small, focus-less, single aperture half-frame camera I had brought with me. Not caring about what kind of pen I was using, I started to write down whatever images I could through whatever means I had. Then, a couple days before I was to leave, a large explosion occurred in the city at the Pemex Executive Tower, killing 37 people and injuring over 120 more. I collected a jar of ash from the blast site and, upon returning to my studio in Los Angeles, started exploring ways to incorporate the time I spent there into a meaningful project. Through a series of combined experimental processes, I came up with a system of crude techniques to use while developing my negatives, involving placing the ash from the actual blast site into my development canisters, along with using excessive agitation, boiling water and intentional sun / light exposure. The result, along with the smaller half-frame negative I was forced to use, gives the grain and silver in the image an extra nuance when enlarged, texturally mimicking both ash and sandpaper- as though the images were brushed with steel wool or were the remnants from a fire.
An artist book created for the project was published by SSK Press in 2014. Images from the project were exhibited as part of a public art installation at Bosque de Chapultepec in Mexico City.