Artist Statement

My photo series Through the Lens is inspired by “terrain vague,” a French term coined by Ignasi de Solà-Morales for ambiguous, unengaged urban spaces that lie between the city's established functions. Reflecting these spaces, the word that stuck out most to me was “unengaged.” While there is a lingering feeling of abandonment throughout this concept, I wanted to capture terrain vague as passageways between engaged spaces. Whether it be a door, arch, gate, or railroad, the common thread that ties these spaces together is that they are transitional and simultaneously forgotten. We are constantly moving whether it be as small as in and out of rooms or as big as across countries, but we rarely think about how we get there. Usually, we are focused on the starting point and destination; when we step into a room, we don’t think about the doorway we enter or the gate we open when taking the trash out from the backyard. Rarely do we ever consider the car doors we climb through, or the train tracks we cross which make them, in a way abandoned. These spaces are means of transportation from one inhabited point to the next, often unconsidered by its occupants.