Artist Statement: These two cyanotypes are part of a larger series, “Portal in Blue.” The images of the series engage with the concept of portals as a curated entryway, seeking to expose the photograph as excerpt, as merely the beginning of an experience rather than any kind of totality. Cyanotype is a fascinating process because it reveals its own structure—the blue an overwhelmingly obvious feature. The blue of architectural blueprints: an unfinished creation, the beginning of something. Additionally, the excerpting approach functions as an exposure of the artifice of image-making. An image is always made and not merely captured. An image is its own story—crafted, edited, excerpted, and presented. These images serve as portals both aesthetically and literally. They are portals into a life, into a traveling body, into the personal. They are portals on the page and pushing beyond the page to a texture of experience that at once reifies the importance of image-making while challenging its objectivity.