The Aristocrats

In my ongoing series of images, The Aristocrats, I critique affluence in contemporary society while examining our current consumerist culture and my own ambivalence towards financial wealth. The images critique the “One Percent” as well as photography’s role in late-capitalism’s production line. Using a scanner as camera and sorting through the indexed collection of Google photographs, I combine old parts to create a new whole. I see this appropriation of images as an inevitable way to critique image creation in contemporary media. By digitally collaging found images of seductive subjects, I force the viewer to translate my creations to the manipulated illusion of pleasure and satisfaction. My tableaus are mimicry of contemporary photography, digital collages that create a tension between depth and flatness. A removal of details, a deconstruction of the procedural tools of photography, and multiple lightings and perspectives allow these distinctly frontal pictures to function as commentary of the photographs they are sourced from. The pictures create a type of jolie laide, an imposition of substance over material. Singular images are meant to be viewed in the context of a series, so as the narrative becomes narration.

The title of this work, The Aristocrats, derives its name from an infamous joke that evolved from vaudevillian humor into a staple of postmodern joke telling. It is a joke about jokes; it is what comedians tell other comedians. Lacking a punchline, the “joke” is about what an audience will go through just to witness the end. The end of the joke juxtaposes a group of entertainers sophisticated name “The Aristocrats” with the despicable acts they perform. Juxtapositions like this are a crux of my images; behind a veil of humor and satire I allow my viewer the opportunity to examine and question lifestyles of opulence.