My father has been a drug dealer for most of his life. He is also an amateur photographer.
Originally from France, he fled back to his home country when I was 13 years old to avoid going back to prison in the U.S. He is not allowed back in the states, but his photos tell a fantastic story of adventure, freedom, and a bohemian ideology bred in 1970's New York City and carried with him ever since.
Dad's Negatives is an ongoing assignment combining the best of my father's photo archives with my contemporary portraits of his life that is a result of the story his photos illustrate. Originally conceived in 2018 after unearthing and scanning over 5000 of his original negatives, many of which had not been viewed since they were developed, the project has become a cathartic journey for me as an artist and as an estranged son.
It is an attempt to share his photography with the world while attempting to forge a bond with the man I am getting to know so much more intimately through his work.
