METANOIA

Metanoia (2018) is an investigation into the materiality and mechanics of photographic practice, and into the subtle transformations that occur when perception is pushed to its limits. Photography is treated not as a fixed record, but as a mutable encounter shaped by surface, light, and the conditions of viewing. Monochrome botanical forms are printed onto a noir substrate, a deep light-absorbing ground that alters how the image behaves. Without the luminous white base of traditional photography, the plant must be discovered rather than consumed. In near-darkness, form gathers slowly. A vein catches faint light. An edge separates from shadow. The image hovers between appearance and disappearance. The work draws from botanical study and the physics of light absorption, where black surfaces swallow much of the visible spectrum, leaving only a fragile residue of reflection. What remains is trace rather than illumination. In this scarcity, perception becomes active. The eye adjusts. The mind completes what it cannot fully see. Metanoia, meaning a change of mind or turning of perception, names this shift. The viewer does not simply look at the image; they undergo a small transformation in order to see it. The photograph becomes a site of change, where material, light, and perception converge, and where the familiar is made newly uncertain.