and then she turns her head is a series of 13 photographs from 2009, sized 36 x 60 cm. As in the project we are not here, I used an antique medium-format folding camera, which causes unpredictable light effects and gives the photographs a peculiar haziness, enhancing the sense of otherworldliness I want to convey. I then reinforced this aspect further digitally.

As opposed to the previous project, the passages in these images are based on light rather than darkness. I worked in two general locations, downtown LA and the Manhattan Beach area. Especially in the latter, there is a lightness not only in the air but also in the buildings. Even the most permanent-looking houses are all façade; instead of stone and solid wood there’s plywood, drywall, concrete and stucco. There’s a light in the air, high and hazy this close to the ocean, and light and air almost seem to pass through the buildings themselves. The heavy darkness, which in my previous images was a possible way through, is here replaced with a brightness hiding the potential destination just as effectively. If we do pass through, will there be something else or just more of the same light? The buildings in downtown LA are more dense, and here I use more open park spaces as a filter through which the light-as-passage can seep. The people in the images are either in a state of rest or passing through, obscured by brightness or turned away.