With this project, I wanted to make photographs that emphasized my experience as a photographer and as a vagrant. I have never been one to feel a definite sense of connection to land and as such have always been both envious and confused by the ties I have heard others claim to a place. Upon my initial quest to investigate this connection, I ventured to places of relative quiet and repose, hoping to share in that experience. I felt lost. The more I tried the more intensely isolated and frustrated I felt, the less I could see or understand of the place I was trying to discover. I came to the conclusion that I was approaching this project from the wrong vantage, that instead of going to a place and photographing how it was intended to make me feel, I should instead use my feelings as a foundation for viewing the place I was in. The compositions presented in this work are completely intentional, my best attempt to express myself in a place and language that feels infinitely foreign.
Stephan Jahanshahi
December, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment