Duplex

The duplex is two houses put together. Normally this combining is done to look like one house, a single unit. In my composites this unity is challenged. I photograph the houses in my neighborhood and the results are typical and boring. The combination of house elements can create unexpected juxtapositions and unusual arrangements. I arrive at these fantasies from common photographic resources: combining,cropping and putting pieces together. My images are bricolages creating tension between what exists, materials at hand, and what is fantasy, the combining of diverse elements. A functionality of collage is the tension created by the split unit, a single piece made of multiple images. Rooflines, siding, brick become patterns of line, tone, and color made from modest homes and seen as high art abstractions.