Lely Constantinople | Artist Statement

I am captivated by the documentary and conceptual aspects of photography and explore the medium’s unique ability to contain both factual and manipulated information at once. I work primarily with analog alternative processes (film, gravure, solar plates, cyanotype, anthotype) and feel strongly about the need for tactile, physical object making. By spending time and labor on individual pieces - sometimes it takes days, weeks, or even months to fully realize one image - a more in-depth exploration of subject and material occurs. I am drawn to a range of subject matter but most often photograph in urban and rural environments in flux, using re-photography over many years to note subtle shifts and changes in a variety of communities. Mapping out neighborhoods and walking them over and over is an integral part of my process. It forces a slower pace and a collaboration of sorts with the street itself and affords the ability to notice and record the most detailed aspects of how communities tear things down and build them back again. A visual archive of sorts is being built but my main focus is on the spontaneity of the street and how communities reveal themselves on any given day.