In The Black of Light

“In The Black of Light” is a topographical documentation of light and the significance of its presence, or absence and how we perceive this notion in our environment. It relates to cognitive matters of perception, interpretation and the storage of the visual information we selectively receive. My approach to this documentation has been based on the moments of which I have intuitively felt most drawn to exploring my environment. Most of these images have been taken before dusk, where wild grass, soil and stone seem to glow like gold and the sea turns silver, and at dusk, with the very last light of the day. During this process, the constant game from light to dark often left me perplexed as to what my mind was perceiving as real. The lack of light surprisingly created a highlighting effect on subjects, sometimes just enough to recognize it and at other moments to even accentuate it. This body of work was developed over a two-year period during which I experienced post-partum depression, often and easily overlooked as it may as in my case, discretely and gradually creep up on you. During this period, I often had trouble recognizing my emotions, which were true and which were merely a manifestation of the depression. There were days where I lost sight of myself but never enough to be unable to recognize my true identity and rectify my self-image, this often reflected in the way I perceived my subjects and the images themselves. This notion for me, was my silver lining, a hopeful thought I identified with each time I captured the moment where the light, or its absence, highlighted my subject enough to make it exquisite to my eyes. On a whole, this work was a therapeutic process that gradually evolved into an emotional mind map, where I could look at each image and recall where I was and how I felt at the time. During this exploration of light in nature, I mirrored my thoughts by creating images where the familiar became unfamiliar and the boundaries between what is real and unreal became indistinct. This identification process was an encouragement in itself and thus propelled me forward.