I bluntly ask women a simple question: “Can you cry?” Women in the series are a mixture of aspiring actresses living in Hollywood, California, and women who suffer from eating disorders, whom I met in an eating disorder support group held at Butler Hospital, Rhode Island.

Cry started in 2012 in an attempt to capture the deep-seated sorrow, to strip away layers of performance, to shed light on their submerged individuality. By encouraging an emotional outpouring, I attempt to reveal the corner of a person untainted by pageantry and social masks that are endemic to our age. The follow-up question, “What did you think of?” provokes many answers, from “I thought about my niece, who passed away when she was eleven years old” to “Sandy Hook, because I knew that would make me cry.” The work is meant to make viewers wonder what prompted the outburst. Through this engagement, the work explores the tension between empathy and performance, implicating the camera’s accepted strength of capturing “truth” while exposing the viewer to extreme emotion of nebulous sincerity.

2012–2013

Cry2012–2013