Arts Thread

I work on horror film sets as a makeup artist, specializing in blood, wounds, and bruising. At the same time, I do behind-the-scenes photography on set, capturing stills and documentation for the crew. I use my camera to look at the social architecture of the set, its layers of reality, and how it informs a prescribed way of moving and being. In particular, I focus on the management of people’s bodies under the authority of a director as I make candid images outside of film takes. I use photography to render everyone a protagonist, whether cast or crew, within these constructions of fantasy and narrative. In doing so, I hope to highlight the multitude of fictions that can be drawn from a rigid set of conditions, blurring the bounds between cinematic performance and physical experience. Growing up with a quadriplegic mother, I find resonance in the controlled environments of film sets, where directorial authority, power dynamics, and the negotiation of bodily autonomy echo the struggles witnessed in my upbringing. On these horror productions, I find that cinematic performance becomes a poignant metaphor for the external forces that puppeteer us towards a predetermined fate, mirroring the journey of my mother as she navigates her personal battle for agency amidst physical constraints.