The fifteen photographs that comprise this collection were taken with black and white film then hand colored with the three primary food colors found in the baking section of supermarkets.
Hand tinting is playful and poetic but also can serve as commentary. In a city where concrete is king, nature occasionally survives painted on walls or as graffiti. Sometimes the accidental is celebrated, like the scattered aluminum can tops viewed as eye candy, or the juxtaposition of playground elements that turn surreal, or the tread marks made by two cars backing up then going in opposite directions, generating two hearts in the snow.
Selective coloring helps fuse fantasy with reality (asserting the imagination over the mundane), as in the photograph of a car tire that’s turned into a flower, or the last photo in this collection, of a woman walking in a blizzard past a mural in Chinatown. Hand tinting awakens bland moments as spice transforms food. Here are a few of my dishes—bring your lips close and taste!