I realized I never shared a bit of exhibition news here on the blog. In “Carol News,” two of my photographs, “Something About Water” and “Tunnel Walker,” were selected for the Out of Time / Out of Place exhibition at A Photographer’s Place in Raleigh, North Carolina.
For this exhibition, they selected two very different photographs, made across two very different places, but they somehow work together. Both play with that slightly uncertain space I find myself returning to in my work. It’s a place that is recognizable, but somehow feels a little removed from ordinary times.
The exhibition is coming to a close, so I’m getting this posted just under the wire. Sometimes the photographs move faster than the blog does. Lately, it feels that’s been happening to me a lot, as there’s a lot going on in Carol’s Little World, and I’m often left playing catch up. Will I ever get used to the pace? I doubt it, although, I must confess, I am enjoying the wild ride.
From the call for entries: “We invite photographers to submit work that explores the idea of being Out of Time/Out of Place. This theme embraces images that disrupt our sense of chronology, geography, memory, or belonging. We are looking for photographs that evoke dislocation, anachronism, nostalgia, surreal encounters, unexpected juxtapositions, or moments that resist easy placement in time, space or visual paradox. Whether through documentary, conceptual, landscape, portraiture, or experimental approaches, we welcome work that challenges perception and invites viewers to reconsider where—and when—they are.”
This theme really spoke to me, so I felt I had to enter.
I interpreted the theme through the idea of liminal spaces.
Perhaps some folks don’t know them by name, but they know them when they see them.
Liminal spaces are transitional places: empty hotel hallways, waiting rooms, train depots, stairwells, corridors—places designed primarily for people to pass through rather than linger.
There’s been a growing fascination with these spaces online. People seek them out, photograph them and share them. There are entire Facebook groups devoted to them. People are getting into these spaces, ironically, precisely because they are typically empty.
Psychologically, they’re interesting too. They can make us feel unsettled. These are edgy images—not your usual Hallmark card or Instagram duck-lip-pouting supermodels. No, these are the spaces in between, voids left unfilled, places that can almost make our collective hair stand up on end.
Maybe it’s because they look familiar, but something isn’t quite right. We know what these places are for, and yet the people who are supposed to occupy them are missing. Or perhaps it’s the sense that we’re waiting for something to happen—or that something already happened and we arrived just a little too late.
Whatever the reason, it’s fascinating to watch this aesthetic gain such a following and now to see exhibitions touching upon similar ideas.
It leaves me wondering: why is this clicking with so many people now? Is there something in the water?
Until next time…
