In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, the central character comes to the frightening realization that he has lived a lifetime of utter inconsequence and struggles with his inability to make his life meaningful. “Do I dare disturb the universe?” Prufrock asks himself in his tortured monologue, evoking his desperate yearning to do something of meaning after a lifetime of superficiality. His insecurities and indecision trap him in a state of paralysis where he continues to overanalyze his existence and immerse himself in his fantasies

This project is an exploration of Prufrock’s fragmented psyche through a series of manipulated photographs. These prints, products of a “magic lantern [throwing] the nerves in patterns on a screen”, are a combination of physical processes that are situated in reality and images that exist in my mind, evoking the magic realism of the poem. The alternative darkroom processes explored through the course of the project act as a representation of Prufrock’s mind: an omnipresent, obsessive, destructive force that renders him incapable participating fully in the reality of the modern world. Through the project, the obsessive processes involved in the creation of each image—the burning, the threads, the hours of darkroom processing—became an extension of my mind as well.