Ethereal Surrealism. Dream State. The time in which your body has turned off its wakefulness and has let go of general understanding.

Originally my concept was more “on the nose.” It was to capture the unreality of the subconscious during dreaming but as the shooting and editing progressed, I realized I was actually capturing an actual visual picture of the lack of comprehension and what that means when you finally wake up. For me, there are two states of mind when I’m asleep or daydreaming and I represented that with two contradicting themes: Nature and Space. Nature feels familiar, warm, and welcoming. In each photo, the figure is one with the nature, balanced and at ease. Whereas, in “Space” the figure is separated from the background more, and the photos feel colder, less familiar and unknown. For some, the clouds and lightening in the “Space” series could signify the anxiety or unease that still comes even in rest. The collection acknowledges the subconscious “dream state,” and reminds us that we don’t have to “understand” everything; that the minute details don’t have to make sense, that our intuition is allowed rest. In sleep, we simply exist, and our awake life dictates our mood.

This collection should also remind us that there is no inherit need to make sense of everything, and to give ourselves grace to just be. This posed a difficult challenge for me, as I often overthink and stress about every detail. This series forced me to take a step back and trust the process. I let the photos tell me what they were trying to convey. The technical process was straightforward. Idea formation, brainstorming, deep and careful planning, getting to the studio, trashing my entire brainstorming storyboard, and just absolutely wingin’ it. This was the best thing I could have done for these photos. It allowed the posing, and the set design to come more naturally. It allowed the editing process to be more organic and less structured. Art shouldn’t be stressful, thinking shouldn’t be taxing, and the process shouldn’t be so anxiety driven. My subconscious knew what it wanted to create so I let it take over.

The end result is a set of photos that were taken in studio, manipulated with multiple composites, layer masking, and hand painting in Photoshop. I hope these photos bring a sense of peace and comfort and help reduce the need to overanalyze the world around you for even just a brief moment.