the Debt Project

The subject of debt is a loaded one — it explores issues of identity, morality, class, politics and psychology. After a period of under employment following the 2008 economic crash, I filed for bankruptcy in 2012. That experience inspired me to investigate the role debt can play in our identity and how we relate to the world. Debt is publicly enforced and highly stigmatized, but is almost always privately experienced. It is in many ways an abstract form without material weight or structure, yet with heavy physicality and burden in a person’s everyday life. 

I began this project by asking subjects to sit for a formal portrait in their home, surrounded by their belongings, and answer a series of questions on camera about their debts. I also asked them to handwrite the amount of debt they are in and the story behind it. These “stories of debt” are displayed separately from the photographs as a group including all of the project's participants. The recorded interviews will be edited to make up the audio portion of the project. 

To date, I have photographed 50 people for this project in the San Francisco, CA, Portland, OR, Detroit, MI, Boston, MA, New Orleans, LA and New England metro areas.  My goal is to photograph 99 people across the US, in order to bring people together to re-contextualize an abstract, often shamed experience. It is my hope that by having a platform to discuss this issue, it will encourage the viewer and participants to question and reframe our perception of Debt and how we contribute to its power and role in our social structure.

For two years, the Debt Project was primarily a self-funded endeavor,  and in November of 2014 I ran a successful Kickstarter to fund travel to New Orleans and New England, as well as to cover production expenses for audio and an exhibition in San Francisco in April.  I still need more travel and production funds to finish the project and appreciate anything anyone can contribute!