Standing Still | 2021

This past year [2020-21], many across the world became no stranger to the notion of standing still. With our reality becoming one of isolation and solitude, activities that allowed a feeling of escapism became high in demand. 

I found that escapism in the world of stock imagery and digital compositing, resulting in a series of self-portraits that work to represent this feeling of standing still amongst a reimagined world. The landscapes shown in these images act as placeholders for the outside world and the potential experiences that could be found within it. For me, landscapes represent a vastness of space and opportunity. I stand alone, barefoot and unsuitably clothed for any real climate; a quiet nod to the reality that the space I was in, was not real.

These composites allowed me to redefine my relationship with restricted freedom. Over the past year, we could not travel, yet stock images of the world were still pushed into the public eye. Through reappropriating these images, I was able to form my own world with no restrictions; allowing me to regain a sense of control during a time of dark uncertainty. It is the manipulations of reality in this work that serve as a reminder of the power of escapism, and the avoidance of reality, never before quiet as prominent as during the pandemic.

Stock images allowed me to connect with a world I could see pictures of, but never experience, resulting in romanticised landscapes of a reimagined world.