Portrait nominee

I am a former photojournalist and filmmaker. During open heart surgery in 2012, I suffered a major stroke leaving me legally blind and subject to vivid visual hallucinations. This life event changed my artistic vision, opening up an entirely new visual style. Utilizing imaging software that corrupts visual data, I was effectively able to replicate what was happening with information within my own brain. I scanned found portraits, maimed their component features and rebuilt them as layered composites to resemble how I now see, in fragments, somehow familiar, yet strange. I take my layered composites and print these as cyanotypes. I bleach and tone my cyanotypes with a mixture of photo chemicals and tea. Ultimately, I digitize the altered cyanotypes and create my final print. The result is my series of enigmatic portraits, Apparition: Postcards From Eye See You.

I am a former photojournalist and filmmaker. During open heart surgery to repair an aneurysm in 2012, I suffered a major stroke leaving me legally blind and subject to vivid visual hallucinations. This life event changed my artistic vision, opening up an entirely new visual style.

In 2017, May was awarded a “Top 50” and “Solo Show Award Winner” at Photolucida’s Critical Mass, LensCulture’s “Emerging Talent Top 50” and “Juror Award” and the 2018 Grand Prize Winner at FOCUS photo la. Because of that honor, May was chosen as a Special Presenter at “Open Show LA #45”. His work was a part of a two-person show at the USC Keck School of Medicine called, Compromised Perception, where he delivered an artist talk with the Chair of Neurology. His busy schedule also included solo shows at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon and The Center for Digital Arts in Santa Ana, CA. In July, the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida hosted him for a solo show and guest speaker on their medical panel.