Artist’s Statement: Power

For over 100 years, in much of the world, rich, usually white, men in suits have been our real kings: exalted for their wealth and power, and for their perceived ability to create abundance and good times for the rest of us. They reigned over us, their subjects, confident that they knew what should be. We largely went along with the myths (how much choice did we have?). Yet underneath those fancy suits, rich men are just unclothed animals like the rest of us: with fears and desires, weaknesses and even strengths. Money can stave off some threats but without nature and without social structures we are all lost. By donning a suit and photographing myself I explore our relationship to power and authority, and its loss. Taking off that suit reveals the man underneath, trying to find his way in the world; stripped of the power he thought he had.