Zach Bowman

Thesis

Zach Bowman is an artist living and working in New York City. His work explores personal and social histories, and their relationship to one another. Through this work, he creates a representation of the world that also provides a sanctuary from the world, referencing notions of memory, community, desire, and time in order to expand the forms in which documentary image making traditionally takes.

This project began with returning to my hometown in Texas, and more specifically a ranch located across the street from my childhood home. My plan was to document the ranch as it was but I had immediately noticed how much of it had changed over time. Whether it was the landscape itself, or the items carefully left behind at derelict campsites. The project itself grew off of this idea of things left behind as evidence of the past and its relationship to the fragility of personal memory. I found that the desire to continue this project spoke to my desire for a time in which no longer exists, I was not photographing the present but rather looking for proof of the past in which I felt a connection to. This for me served as a way of restructuring time through image-making and allows for me to preserve my memories. The images themselves act as a source of identifiers for common cultural themes within my childhood and pose a question to my relationship with them now.

• Personal Website

• zachbowmanstudio.com