In 2002, I began photographing conventions. In this series I am showing the Abe Lincoln Presenters Convention, The Taxidermy Convention, The Players Ball (For Pimps and Prostitutes), Beatlefest, and the MidWest Furfest for people who like to dress as stuffed animals.
I am in the process of photographing conventions. From the bizarre––such as the "The Player's Ball for Pimps and Prostitutes"––to the decidedly dull––the Korean American Drycleaners Association Convention, for example. I am fascinated with conventions because these are events where one comes to not only exhibit and sell products––from sex to funeral headstones––but to also exhibit themselves. Here, it is the consuming of identities that becomes the product. At a convention the fluidity of one's reality is subsumed and recast as a pimp, a drycleaner, Abe Lincoln, taxidermist, or"furry", a person who likes to dress as a stuffed animal;etc. It therefore becomes a place with it's own set of underground yet manufactured rules and regulations, costuming and language. Conventions create their own version of consumerism; their own branding, their own logos.