American Fairy Tale
American Fairy Tale is a photographic series that reimagines American historical figures within contemporary environments, contrasting staged tableaux with unstaged images of present-day life.
The work examines how national mythology is produced and sustained through images and the role we play in constructing what is accepted as reality. By placing familiar icons within contemporary contexts, the photographs create moments of temporal tension that invite viewers to reconsider how collective memory is authored, performed, and inherited.
Created Equal, 2025
Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha are reimagined as an American version of Fragonard's The Swing, replacing aristocracy with democracy.
American Dream, 2014
Static, 2020
Scrolling Through Life, 2020
Drift Away, 2020
In the Wilderness, 2020
Help Me Benji, 2025
Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the lightning rod and called “the founding flirt” for his numerous impassioned intellectual correspondence with women, is shown helping treat a woman’s depression with lightning-powered electroshock therapy at her desperate request.
Party Like It’s 1776, 2025
Betsy Ross, long credited with sewing the first American flag, is reimagined celebrating after having made the first Twister board. Painted portraits from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson appear in the background.
Golden Hour, 2025
Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who became the first published African-American poet in 1773, is reimagined as a contemporary influencer, able to travel and live her artistic life to its fullest. Several of her poems reference the sun, a key part of her African religion that she brought with her, which appears here as both a visual motif and a symbol of spiritual freedom.
Top Tier, 2025
George Washington is imagined after his public life, bringing presidential austerity to the mundane task of bringing dessert to a party
Ready to Serve, 2025
A Woman’s Work, 2024