Ruffin Street
I have tried to capture the ambiguity between public and private space, the canopy of trees forming a stage, a space within which people act their lives. The fragile walls of houses lining the stage delineate the flimsy boundary between the public and private. As an observer, you privately view the stage yet appear to be positioned within it.
Carolina Beach
‘Carolina Beach’ complements ‘Ruffin Street’: the space shown in this image, the frame of a pier, helps fishermen to connect, through their fishing lines, to the sea. It is reminiscent of a stage, and empty. This space is located underneath the world of the fishermen – an ostensibly communal sphere in which everyone present inhabits their own private world.
Watts Street
A feature of many trees in Durham, NC is the removal of the central trunk to allow power cables to pass overhead. Here, a street lamp shines from within the heart of a tree through the remaining branches of an adjacent maple whose branches seem to embrace it, framing and protecting the beating heart.