My work explores photography’s tangibility as an object by questioning the visibility of the image we are meant to be looking at. Can a photograph simultaneously contain what is not present as well as that which is visible? “The Disappeared” is the portrait of a missing protagonist. The images were inspired by Soviet-era photographs that were manipulated to make individuals “disappear” from history. Culled from my parents' repository of family snapshots taken in the US shortly after their arrival from USSR in the late 70’s, “The Disappeared” explores notions of memory and historical revision. Enlarging the images to the point that their grain structure started to fall apart, I removed myself using traditional hand retouching techniques, using collage and paint. The tangible proof of my existence became physically modified; often, the meaning of other people’s gestures were transformed as well.