BODY SNATCHERS

Fear is a primal instinct that exists in all of us. Leaders of our nations, communities and religions exploit fear in order to manipulate us, as if we didn’t have enough things to worry about. The world is abuzz with conspiracy theories and fearmongering about the end of the world. Some of the topics that persistently pop up are about Aliens and zombies.  This photo series, “Body Snatchers”, explores the images of something between light and darkness. In other words, shadows. They exist for only moments of time but through them, myriad forms of art are created through the movement of light. As a photographer, my interest was to explore the subject of the visuals that appear magically in certain conditions . Shadows are considered technically inadept in commercial photography. Outside the realm of photography, shadows have played a huge part in philosophy, religion and paranormal studies throughout the world. Many cultures consider them a symbol of evil and fear the mythical ‘Shadow people’. In Hindu mythology,  there is even a God of Shadows, Chaya. And in the western canon, witchcraft, vampires, sorcery , and voodoo are connected to themes of darkness and shadows. Despite their negative connotations in some cultures, shadows have also been associated with storytelling in others, like the famous shadow theatre in Southeast Asia. To some shadows are neutral and belong in the no-man’s land between the forces of  good and evil.  When you first look at these images, the beings look inhuman, like zombies with grotesque, twisted forms, ominously waiting to attack us from around the corner. With all the genre of horror films thrown at us  and their influence in popular culture, our minds are trained to react instantly with a sense of fear from all that we have consumed in various forms. In reality, everything can form a shadow in the right conditions but  these are temporary images that disappear over time. Reality is what we want to see, so do we need these zombies to invade us to really for humans to be united for a change?