The moments I capture are characters with whom my relationship is somewhat contentious. The act of of documentation gives back to them through granting them more time, however also immensely violates them through disrupting their natural state of transience without permission. To photograph is to bestow permanence upon something innately transient––to force something to stay, often violently. To take a photograph is to capture something and hold it hostage forever. Within this practice lives a terrorizing tension between acceptance and denial. Sophie Altemus is a photographer and multi-media artist based in Oberlin, OH and Los Angeles, CA. All photos are shot on film.

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