The Delectable Duplicity of Digital

Once when tedious chemical processes, experimental exposures, and sandwiched negatives were used to create special effects, image manipulation was not as popular. Photographs, for the most part, were believed as truth, a recording of something that actually existed. Now, with the advances of digital techniques, our ability to manipulate photographs with ease has grown, and as a result, it has become second nature to question the integrity of an image before believing it.

I used to spend hours upon hours on playful exposures, elbow deep in unaffordable chemicals to find the line where the truth of my imagery was challenged. For me, it was not about capturing a moment or place as much as it was about creating one. Now, through digital enhancement, composites, overlays, and textures, the boundaries are endless, a conceptual artist’s dream. Anything can be and is possible, in creation, in manipulation, in deception: a captivating flirtation with truth. Through this ‘new’ medium, the opportunity to make the viewer think and question reality is boundless.

From Jersey City, NJ to Oakland, CA... The open roads are infinite. Wide-open skies and surreal land, vast desert for miles, interrupted by massive mountains and bewildering industrial structures: A photographer's playground for most.. an immeasurable bank of raw materials for me. A Doktored America is a collection of images of a cross-country journey, some of places that exist, odd as they may be, and others of my creation. For me, the documentation of my trip has only begun.