2019 - 2020. Mirrors, with images etched into the reflective coating using a laser cutter, framed with flocked wooden backs, brass hardware, and copper tabs. Frame design & custom hardware by Grace Anne Odom. 

The photographs in this series were cropped from scans of 18th-century ferrotypes, daguerreotypes, & 19th-century silver gelatin photographs from the library of congress and other digital archives. Removing the faces of the subjects, and focusing solely on their hands draws attention to the intimacy and care of these gestures. Hands are one of the primary ways we enact agency in the world, and they are essential to how we express care and love for each other. They are simultaneously deeply specific and completely anonymous. 

Placing these historic images on mirrors asks the viewer to forge a relationship with the past in new ways, as the viewer cannot see the image without first seeing themselves. This forced connection between the past and present prompts viewers to recognize themselves in the hands of strangers, and engage with history from a place of empathy - seeing these historic photographs not just as relics from the past, but also as reflections of our present.