I am interested in narrative, play and mystery; my art is based on imagination—mine and that of the viewer. I use black and white photography because I prefer otherworldly monochrome images without the realism of colour. Over the past 15 years I have developed a body of work using found objects in the form of toys and dolls which I purchase at thrift stores and photograph in staged, fantasy settings.

In my photographs I try to suggest interior states which can also be projected as behaviors or conditions in the world around us. The animal as metaphor is the primary focus of my new series The Woman Who Is A Horse  and in order to broaden its scope and power I am using real people as actors instead of dolls.

Animals fascinate me because their representation so easily suggests duality. The first duality is the way we separate ourselves from them. And then … we subject them to our needs—through time we have used animals as beasts of burden, they carried or pulled us from one place to another—but we also worshipped them as deities; they are characterized as sweet and cuddly—but we know they are also capable of aggression and ferocity. Duality is unsettling, mysterious and present in all of us. The use of masks in these photographs reinforces the sense of ambivalence and latent alienation. This work also addresses themes of identity, self and femininity.

To express the themes I work with I have developed a set of 'primitive' (non-digital) studio and darkroom-based techniques which, for the most part, involve 'printhroughs' or paper negatives. By combining reverse prints, photocopies, drawing and painting on paper negatives as well as montage and collage, I add nuance and undertone to my imagery.

I am interested in using these techniques because their results are often erratic, and this reminds me to avoid what I am sure about and to always aim for what is new and unknown to me—this is a primary goal of my art making.