Film & Photography
Sacred Shores
In this work, I focus on the shore, the place where the land, ocean, and sky join together. As the horizon disappears, the world below it crosses the threshold into the divine. As Larkin writes in his poem, To The Sea, “Everything crowds under the low horizon”. It is on this sandy meeting place, that I find a sense of connection and transcendence. I have always been drawn to the tranquil allure of dreamy beach life. I seek to evoke a feeling of escape, transporting the viewer to this world where the sun-drenched sand fill us with a sense of child like wonder and serenity, a space where past, present and future are blurred. The golden sand serves as a metaphor for the passage of time, constantly shifting and changing, imbued with a sense of longing and a touch of melancholy. In particular, I am fascinated by the way in which surfers have become modern-day superheroes, a reminder of adventure and perseverance. On the beach where the young dream of what is possible, and the old, of what was possible once. Through low contrast muted colors that tend towards gold, (“with seaweed red and brown”), I seek to evoke a sense of longing and nostalgia that transport viewers to a world of tranquility and contemplation, destined to be interrupted by the passing time. (“Till human voices wake us, and we drown”). But even as my work acknowledges the transience of life’s pleasures, it celebrates the power of imagination. I often use double exposures that play with scale to challenge the viewer’s perception and invite them to question their own understanding of reality. The double exposure is made digitally, while the original frame is made on a 6×6 negative film from a classic Rolleiflex, thus bringing together techniques both modern and traditional, a further mix of young and old that completes this work.
