I have learned too much about the extreme disparities of our world. Consequently, on TV, in other media, in advertising, during my daily activities and on the streets that I travel each day, I find myself constantly confronted with painful contrasts and polarizations. These seem to exist side-by-side everywhere I turn and these contradictions are very difficult to escape. Most of the time I feel helpless in the face of them and truthfully, would rather not deal with them at all. At the same time, I believe that taking pictures is a way of bearing witness to the inequities about which I can do so little, but nevertheless, upset me.
The series was created and exhibited as part of the Envisioning the Future Project which I co-facilitated with my wife, the artist, Judy Chicago at Cal Poly Pomona in the fall of 2003. The work from the Project was on exhibition at multiple venues in January and February 2004. Envisioning the Future was a unique interdisciplinary project in which we facilitated a group of over 70 artists to imagine, create and exhibit diverse images of the future.
The series of paired images which I created attests to some of the scenes I encountered in my four months living in the “Inland Empire”, the area surrounding the Pomona Valley east of Los Angeles, CA. When I think about the future, I wonder what it will be — and for whom.
