I aim to capture moments of ethereal transformation in my photographs. In these photographic moments, the traditional boundaries of what we consider to be human or animal, physical or spiritual, peaceful or disturbing blur and destabilize.
My work starts as a private performance for the camera. Like dance or ritual, I tell a loosely defined narrative by immersing my body into the surrounding landscape. I move with the aim of challenging my body’s physical limitations, hinting at the constraint I have felt living in my body, and its separation from the natural world. The landscape grounds the body, while the blurred movement alludes to the dissolution of reality into a fantastical world. The resulting images are simultaneously beautiful and subtly threatening. The body takes on a monstrous form and becomes a creature, neither human nor animal but a distortion of both. The ritualistic actions captured on film suggest the moment of catching a glimpse of a spirit or phantom out of the corner of one’s eye.
The images implicitly question the meaning behind a lone figure’s journey into the natural world. I find inspiration from regional folklore, mythology and fairytales and am drawn to those heroines who roam the earth in search of passion, meaning, identity, guidance and redemption. My traditional black and white photographs conjure an “other world” atmosphere that suggests the mythic dialogue between the real and the imagined. The absence of color starts eroding at the boundaries between the body and landscape, where one begins and the other ends.
At the core of my work are open-ended questions--what is gained through the transformation from one state to another? Is a quest for knowledge fulfilled? If desires are satisfied, then which desires? Does transcendence offer us insight into the unknowable spiritual world, and is this glimpse into the unknown comforting or dangerous?
