Whether photographing interiors, landscapes, or influential people, I strive to reveal the emotions and stories embedded within each subject. My work evokes nostalgia and explores individual perception, offering intimate glimpses into spaces and personalities that might otherwise go unnoticed. Through raw, unguarded moments, I seek to document authenticity, presence, and the deep connection between subject and viewer.
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Avery J Klein as The Dead Detective
The Dead Detective is my ongoing visual-literary project exploring the hidden lives behind 19th-century photographs. What began with longing for my second-great-grandmothers portrait, and box of over 500 antique portraits from an unknown family, has evolved into a multidisciplinary ancestral project that fuses genealogy, storytelling, and historical research into a vibrant act of recovery and remembrance.
Each portrait identified becomes a rare glimpse into lost lives and their stories, ultimately giving a voice back to those who have been buried by for centuries. As an antique photography collector, I feel a deep responsibility to unearth and preserve what is often a person’s only surviving image. Over time, this responsibility has evolved into a passion for recontextualizing their untold narratives—restoring dignity, depth, and recognition to those long overlooked. Through this work, I hope to ignite a sense of urgency in others to preserve their own family legacies—by opening conversations with elders and equipping communities with the tools to keep our shared history visually alive.