LAUREL JOHANNESSON

Situations is a new series of work that explores various psychological states of being, using the beach or shoreline as a temporal space where transformation occurs. The figures are situated in natural settings that I photograph in remote, mystically-charged locations in Greece. These settings usually include a shoreline or sea cave, as I see the beach as a liminal site…the transformative space between two temporalities. 

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The beach is a mesmeric place. It is a threshold where the intimation of celestial powers is murmured by the vacillation of the tides. The beach is the quintessential liminal zone. It is neither land nor sea, an expanse of precariousness that reverberates with the sound of unpredictable seas, …placid, serene, and soporific …or unsettled, chaotic, and disconcerting. It is a margin that unveils a space of intensified sensations that are fleeting, idiosyncratic, and fugitive. It is often a place of naked truth, of judgement, a site of initiation into consciousness. In this work, the verge of transition from the sanctuary of land to the vastness of the imposing sea, provides a threshold for self-awareness, and an exploration of aloneness, isolation, and remoteness.