265 Screens is a body of work comprised of photography and cinematography — all part of an installation set in a darkened space, creating an alternative cinematic experience. Upon entering, the viewer is surrounded by the monotonous clickity-clack of a film projector creating a rhythmic score at the center of the installation – projecting scenes of endlessly searching movie posters on a digital device and the aftermath of closed movie theaters.

Spending many hours on the road photographing these theaters, I began to reflect on the connection between losing these cinemas and the troubling times we are living through today. My research turned to sociology journals focusing on the changing media landscape, and how insulated viewing experiences are adding to a global epidemic of loneliness. Excessive consumption through the constant availability of content on digital devices has been linked to sleep deprivation, anxiety-depressive disorders, and social isolation. This research prompted the creation of a motion picture film edited in seven scenes. The film is displayed across a widescreen canvas constructed from three monitors with fractures in between, combining cinematography, appropriated media and sound recordings as screens within screens, meditating on what it means to lose these cinematic spaces.

The work embodies the transition of digital media by blending a variety of processes used to create the images themselves. The photographs are captured on analog film, scanned to digital files and printed on photographic paper using traditional silver gelatin photochemical processes. The motion picture images are filmed with 16mm celluloid stocks some of which feature hand processed film using alternative eco-friendly chemistry, then presented on state-of-the-art HDR OLED digital monitors that unlock the dynamic range film has always been able to capture, delivering deep black tones and much brighter highlights than traditional televisions can produce. The blending of these old and new techniques frame how I have seen media and society change, documenting the transition we are currently living through.