coquettish decay
2025
Unique Antique 19th century daguerreotype cases featuring pigment prints from the series on Hahnemuhle Agave paper sized approx. 2 x 2.5.
As a visual artist, my work centers on storytelling as a means of exploring memory, identity, and place. Coquettish Decay is a photographic series that merges image and text, inviting viewers to engage with the material both visually and conceptually. The photographs, made during a retreat off the coast of Georgia, are paired with handwritten excerpts from William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, invoking the literary tradition of Southern Gothic to examine themes of decay, legacy, and constraint.
Faulkner’s tale, set in a post–Civil War Southern town, follows a "genteel woman" from a once-prominent family, isolated by a controlling father and societal expectations. It's a story steeped in small-town gossip, social codes, and fading legacies—where ideas like noblesse oblige still resonate.
As part of the series, I repurposed 19th-century daguerreotype cases, replacing their original portraits with my own photographs. These antique cases, period-appropriate to the story’s setting, evoke objects the protagonist might have owned, reinforcing key elements of the story.
