Alive is a photographic series examining how human presence is assigned, staged, and perceived. The work centers on mannequins and, at times, statues encountered in storefronts and commercial spaces—figures constructed to resemble us and shaped through collective ideas of beauty, identity, and desire.
Styled, posed, and displayed, these bodies function as vessels for human projection. Through framing and light, the photographs heighten gesture and posture, allowing the figures to appear convincingly present. What registers as human in the images emerges through context and perception rather than animation or agency.
Within these environments, humanity is dispersed across surfaces and details. The mannequins reflect how bodies are idealized, edited, and offered for viewing, revealing a form of presence that is curated and performed. The work points to a condition in which being seen can substitute for being alive.
Alive poses an open question: if human presence can be convincingly carried by objects, where does humanity reside? In the body itself, in intention, in perception, or in the act of looking? The series invites viewers to consider how much of what we recognize as alive is constructed—and how readily we accept that construction.