In 2013, I spent two months in Istanbul in the wake of the Taksim riots.  I was inspired to draw, paint and photograph the diverse tensions that encompass that city: old and new; religious and secular; traditional and innovative.  This research and development has defined Apotheosis, a series of 18 photo-illustrations that create narratives around Turkish daily life, both imagined by my outsider-eye, and through interviews and collaborative photo-exchanges between friends and acquaintances that I made during my stay.

Mirroring my past scenographic work in theater design, these artistic compositions are “staged” through the process of layering imagery, following in the vein of Max Ernst’s landmark series, une semaine de bonté (1934).  I am currently analyzing the levels of illusion in the technical registration to affirm to the viewer that the narratives are staged, as opposed to creating “naturalistic” photographs that hide the illusion of the collages.  Original sketches and photographs are combined with stock imagery in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create multi-layered compositions, upon which I add additional artistic marks using gouache, metallic ink, transparencies and oil wash to further define the existing textures in the photos.