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Watchful Houses is the companion series to Sleeping Houses, both series explore the nature of cultural habits that influence the feeling of being an observer on the streets of an urban residential  area at night.

Divided by a Country border but sharing a language, Watchful Houses is photographed in the Netherlands while Sleeping Houses is photographer in Belgium's Flemish region.

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the topics of safety, security, and personal control (whether it is of our personal environments, personal space or personal relationships) are issues that i have been interested in for most of my artistic life. in one form or another my subject matter has always dealt with these concepts – if not head on, then in an indirect manner.

when i relocated to belgium, specifically to flanders from the united states, the ideas that fascinate me and inspire my work lead me to this series.

the flemish region has a cultural habit of shuttering their houses every evening: whether it is warm, cold, light or dark doesn’t seem to matter- what matters is closing out the outside world. manicured gardens and well-tended houses are shut tight for the night with no signs of interior life while standing in wait for someone to awaken them. this has the effect of making towns and villages feel empty, abandoned and surreal to the non-native visitor or resident.

my exploration of this surrealistic landscape is not only about feeling abandoned or lost in a ghost town environment but is a questioning of the cultural need to close off and fortify oneself from others; the house as a visual metaphor for the human psyche.

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these images are of various places i find myself in, usually while i'm working on other series.

images, that are in some ways, a private dialogue between a place and myself – always solitaire in nature.

these images are not a moment in time but a
moment out of time; what feels like a secret that is being told to me – in color, light and shadow.

having always been seduced in my work by the language of color and its use, this work is stripped down to being about the color, texture and structure. macro images of moss and lichen photographed in it's environment- on walls, paving stones, building bricks, fences and occasionally trees only with natural light. post-production is kept minimal, with alteration to the saturation of the colors and contrast, the photographs are printed on a cotton rag paper at large scale (70cmx100cm) making these images seem more like paintings than photographs. this is my first body of work done entirely digitally, which is a bit ironic because in its end form it feels the least photographic.

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new york city’s playgrounds are hidden in the labyrinth of cement & glass of the city, in the corners of parks and on the edges of the island. refuges for many who are growing up in the city, these playgrounds are also an obvious sign of it’s society - encircled by fences, gated, and with notices posted: “ no adults allowed unaccompanied by a child” they aim to keep out those that might do harm.

this harsh notice, this rule, is a modern necessity in the city. while it is for the protection of the children the playgrounds are for, it reveals an element of the danger in safe spaces meant for laughter, a place to grow and  a space where one is allowed to be young.

new york’s playgrounds encapsulate several dualities: enjoyment and fear, freedom and control, hope and despair. that these dualities are found in the midst of a city that presents itself as being overly confident, hint at an underlying feeling of uncertainty. as new york confronted it’s own loss of innocence and it’s fear of the dangers that lurked in the shadows from 2001 to 2005 i explored the city’s playgrounds and found a metaphor for the society i was part of in no adults allowed.