“The power of place defines an aggregate of circumstances and conditions ranging from cultural traditions to natural phenomena, into which we are born, with which we cope, and from which we derive our multiple identities.”

Surface is a photographic work exploring an individual’s vulnerability in relation to the external environment. Exploring the power of place, the work incorporates elements of self-portraiture and traditional ideas of the picturesque landscape, to highlight the potential for a location to merge with, and control its inhabitant. The work relinquishes the security of self, using the camera and surroundings to create an alternate reality, where the distinction between person and place slowly fades. By fading this distinction, the work attempts to question the conflict where human kind has dominion over place, to show a scene where nature is now the aggressor.

Blji, H.D. 2008, The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization’s Rough Landscape, Oxford University Press, New York. Pg. 234.