Derivatives (2014-2017) are a series of analogue 35mm color photographs combining ideas from collage with technical expertise in analogue process. Derivatives examines the relationship of stock, and pop-photography with photographic craft and fine art.

I was motivated to create something ‘original’ from the deluge of mediocre pop-photography being taken by amateur photographers in the 00′s and 10′s — which seemed unoriginal at best and outright derivative at worst. I asked, “What would I need to do to take something lacking in originality and push it into a space where it became wholly different?”

So I began assembling a database of digital photography from across the internet,  which I felt lacked purpose and inspiration, to highlight the various trends in popular photography. I selected photographs from this database at random and used them generatively as the basis for analogue works. I was essentially ‘scrapping’ the internet much the way Generative AI does — a whole decade before GenAI existed.

Derivatives numbers 65+ and was primarily produced during a residency at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.