Twinsburg, OH, USA. 6x7 medium format film photography.

House of Surprises documents the International Twins Fest. Each year, twins, triplets, quadruplets, and their families come together to honor the extraordinary bond they share. Set against the vibrant atmosphere of an American county fair, the festival offers a unique blend of spectacle and intimacy.

I see a man, probably a father, sitting on a bench, a strangely solitary figure in a gathering of multiples. He’s hunched, eyes closed, biting into a popsicle. My approach immediately breaks the spell of his sugary reverie, as I invite myself into his singular world. With as few words a possible, we recreate what I saw a few moments ago. I want to get back to that place with him, where I witnessed his existence with that cherry popsicle.

For me, portraiture is choreographing a pose that bears witness to the moment before, or the moment before that. An awkward vulnerability arises in asking a person to perform an act that was once natural but is now stagecraft. Suddenly the unconscious movement that lured me in, transforms into a self-conscious gesture before the camera. Both states of consciousness reveal what’s behind the physicality of the sitter, but self-consciousness is directly related to a camera being present. I embrace the sitter’s self-centered state as a way to simultaneously recognize my photographic disruption and erase it.After all, self-consciousness narrows the ability to think much beyond the personal, and in that state the sitter is once again is cast back to a place that holds little room to recognize my presence.The mask that came about with my approach cracks, and my presences as a photographer is both recognized and erased.In this moment I am able to join them.