The twenty-first century world is large, yet small; connected, yet separate. In the west, it’s easy to feel as though we’re on the inside looking out. We sit protected, idyllic, curious. We’ve done our best to wall ourselves in (or out), to create borders and divisions.
But, many of us in privileged positions are gradually realizing that we no longer have the luxury of remaining inside those ideological bubbles. It’s impossible not to feel the tensions all around us. More urgently than ever, we face questions about how we exist on earth, what we give to it—and what we expect from it.
Beyond & Between extends previous documentary work into a more personal and poetic mode, with images that span four years and three countries: Canada, Cambodia, and Scotland. Some of these images raise the question of perspective—how close are we, really, to the world(s) around us? Others raise issues of connection amid constructions and capitalisms.
Just as important, the project interrogates the process of finding connected meaning through seemingly disconnected images. As a consideration of what it means to exist as humans in the 21st century, this work also explores our relationship with the photographic image—how one can affect the reading of another; and how their open associations invite us to hold both their individual meanings and their collective dialogue. In these images, I ask myself – and invite my viewers to ask – about the nuanced nature of our relationship with the world we inhabit.