These little pieces grew out of my
series, "Ways of Remembering",
In that series I layered old photographs
and tintypes in various combinations,
to create a visual essay on the ways in
which stories and memories alter over
time, and conflicting realities coexist.
The series was personal in
that the photos I used were from my
mother's family, but the condition
is universal.

"Wish You Were Here", on the other
hand, was made entirely for fun, letting
my cast of characters indulge in a bit
of time travel, and encounter the
fashions and mores of an earlier time.
Some pieces took the form of 3D
postcards, with faux postage stamps
made from family portraits or tiny
engravings, and these gave the series
its name.

Most of the text and engravings
are from a bound volume of "Frank
Leslie's Sunday Magazine",
published in the mid-eighteenth
century, in which Inspirational poems
and fiction with moral lessons are
interspersed with illustrated articles
on exotic places and the reports of
missionaries.