Immersion

(2012-ongoing)

This body of work is a means of encapsulating a sort of wanderlust, or desire for disconnection, by going into the wild.  By staging myself in the landscape I solve the dilemma of connecting with my environment.  However, the laptop and headphones I employ in the photos represent an impasse with nature.  Can you feel at one with the natural world while checking your email?  Is it harder to maintain a bond with the cosmos with more technological engagement?  I believe an all-encompassing relationship with technology creates an immersive cushion that can blind us to the environments we are a part of.

The activity of connecting on a social networking site, browsing the day’s weblines, or absorbing new viral messages is highly immersive.  Doing it within the context of the grandeur of nature introduces an absurdity element.  It is this absurdity that interests me.  At times I feel incapacitated by the torrent of decontextualized information streaming from the internet and television.  Focusing on irrelevance and incoherence is easy when it’s at your fingertips.  It seems our modern quandary is to reconcile our hyper-self-aware states with a sustained ecological connection.  This work offers a personal reflection on these issues.

All images are 4x5 color film