Death Bed Ambiguities - Derrick Chirinos

Artist Statement

Death Bed Ambiguities is an exploration into the idea that life as we perceive it in this very moment is actually a memory being recalled by a future self living in our final days. Did things actually happen the way we are experiencing them right now or another way? The further we reach back into our past, the harder it becomes to know whether the pieces are meant to fit together or doomed to forge a false memory. Derrick Chirinos weaves this concept through non-traditional means of photography by harnessing both the unpredictable chaotic nature of physical film manipulation and the precise digital tools available to him.

Derrick Chirinos is a conceptual photographer/videographer and an EMU 2019 VACA graduate based in Harrisonburg, VA. Primarily working with film photography, Derrick aims to expand the methods used to tell a story or concept and think outside the image through the use of film manipulation. Since the completion of his 2020 photo book Running Away is Too Easy, Derrick has committed himself to exhibiting one gallery or taking on one large project each year to further tackle his goal of stretching the boundaries of photography and his own creative ability. Since then, he has exhibited at JMU's The Little Gallery Underground in 2021 and now at EMU in 2022. He is also the full-time photo/video specialist for the Eastern Mennonite University Marketing and Communications Department.