Porcelain

For this series, I wanted to use a large-format camera to capture a texture-rich image. On pondering this idea I stumbled upon the urinal. I found the average urinal to have a wonderful sculpture quality, and that it could be the perfect environment for capturing an image with a large-format camera. This subject became more and more interesting to me as I scouted for washrooms and found such a variety of urinals that thus enriched that sculpture quality I had envisioned.

I wanted to position each urinal in an intimate or even portrait style so that each location could feel like its own emotion or personality. The normally taboo or playful nature of this subject seemed like a perfect subject to manipulate and display in an interesting way. I want to provoke discussion and feeling on a subject that many would not expect to take seriously or view in such a way. This piece was greatly influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s famous “R. Mutt” urinal, and I believe I was able to properly take the feeling and vibe from that piece and portray that in my own style and vision.

No true story is displayed behind these images, but yet I believe the dreariness that they create forces the viewer to look further into the simple structure of the urinal and give each one its own likeness. The portraiture approach in terms of how they are arranged and displayed furthers this vision.