Project Statement:
As a young boy, I was always told that when I reached adulthood I would get a full time job, buy a car, a house, and have a family of my own. The reality of my adulthood is very different from the expectation I had imagined for myself in my early 20s. Waiting is an attempt to cope with my disillusionment. I use my camera as a way to investigate the minor imperfections contained in my domestic sphere. The resulting images act as documents of intimate spaces and metaphors for emotional states, creating an alternative self-portrait.
My photographs gently focus on intimate but abject objects, moments and spaces, creating a series of fragmented narratives. These moments create a picture of the things left unfinished, broken and in semi-functional or compromised states. At the same time, they also document traces of the life I live and the spaces I inhabit. Far from the masculine ideal I embraced as a child, Waiting also functions as a vulnerable portrait of masculinity, where control and mastery are no longer central or assumed. In this way, my project documents both unfulfilled expectations as well as the subtle grain of my everyday life.
Artist Bio:
Eric Nichols is an artist, cinematographer and photographer based out of Worcester, Massachusetts. He holds a MFA in studio arts from Maine College of Art and is a photo lab manager and faculty member at Worcester State University. He is currently pursuing a career as a fine art photographer and his work has been shown nationally at the Fitchburg Art Museum, the Griffin Museum of Photography, The Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland, Maine.
