Borne back ceaselessly into the past

I grew up as a closeted young man and a dancer in a small Louisiana town. Despite my love for dance, I was never quite true to myself, and concealed much of my passion. I gave up at 17 after an accident made dancing painful. Over 25 years later, I still cherish dance amidst echoes of pain and missed opportunities.



This series is inspired by one of my favorite lines in literature, “borne back ceaselessly into the past.” I read The Great Gatsby in adulthood, and was captivated by the sentence for its ability to visualize an abstract concept. I wanted to explore how we are tethered to our past, no matter how free we may want to be.



Water is a constant in my life and my work, embodying freedom, fluidity, rhythm, but also risk—the uncertainty beneath the surface. The obscured faces symbolize shared narratives of some past experience hanging like a veil over our eyes. The intentional use of slow shutter illustrates the mark our own actions create on ourselves and the world. The images are at first beautiful and colorful, yet I hope viewers ponder the perpetual influence of the past on our present journey.