Everyone’s “everyday” consists of a different makeup, a different routine. Places, on the other hand, remain constant. I explore these everyday places in order to ground viewers in an area with which they are familiar, to give them a sense of reality. My images, however, try to capture the surreal in these places of reality. I want to show the parts that are ignored, the areas that seem to be so commonplace that one wouldn’t think anything odd could possibly exist there. When I take photos, I look to deconstruct an everyday area to show its quirks, oddities, and most importantly, the aspects that make it surreal.
Digital photography is my medium. For this project, I limited myself to a single parking garage and explored it as well as the surrounding area. Every photo is taken of, or from, this garage at night. I used a tripod to keep the images clear and crisp to capture the location’s inherent surrealism, letting darker areas become illuminated and bright ones become blown out or flared up.
I want to disorient the observer by giving these photos the constructed quality of a collage. Parts of these photos should not feel like they go together. In creating this aesthetic effect, light plays a major role. Most of the light is artificial with the only natural light coming from the moon.
My biggest influence for this photo series was David Lynch. His films and artwork focuses on aesthetics, texture, and the surreal. While I do not concern myself with texture, I am very interested in the manner in which Lynch produces a sense of the odd in the most mundane locations. Inspired by Lynch, my series attempts to force the viewer to look at the everyday in a new way, with a particular emphasis on color and composition.
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