Brace! Brace!

2011 – Present

For two years I researched travel: What travel means, how we use it as leisure, who we are when we’re tourists, and the nature of leisure.

I’m especially fascinated with air travel, particularly air safety.

At the beginning of every flight you are briefed about the brace position, a position that has been proven to increase rates of survival in airline accidents. In the seat pocket in front of you there is always an safety card which diagrams this position – seated, head on knees, hands usually on head and elbows bent around the sides of the face, but sometimes tucked under the knees:

Though it’s effective in preventing fatalities, the brace position is a tiny human gesture of survival against tremendous odds, a gesture of defiance in the face of enormous speeds and gravitational force.

More pessimistically, it’s a position in which we await our death.

This photo series documents me adopting the brace position in public spaces and everyday situations, the places where we pass the time until our own inevitable demises.