Liminal Spaces (part 1)

Digital image/print (2024)

The theme I chose for this project is “liminal spaces.” A liminal space is the “uncertain transition between where you've been and where you're going physically, emotionally, or metaphorically. To be in a liminal space means to be on the precipice of something new but not quite there yet.” In internet culture it can simply mean an empty/abandoned place that is eerie, nostalgic, and surreal. In Latin the word liminal translates to “threshold” which is the perfect word to describe what I aimed to capture. Many of my photos are taken in one area that shows a gateway of sorts into another, whether that be a door, fence, window, or any other obstruction/path that you can pass through. Beyond this point is where you would start to feel uneasy due to the lack of information you have about the area; and even the places that don’t have a threshold to ‘cross over’ have the qualities of being eerie and surreal. My inspiration for this project is the backrooms, which has popularized these kinds of creepy, empty images. This theoretical subspace can be accessed by falling or “no-clipping” out of reality and has tons of different “levels” that you can phase into and through, whether on accident or on purpose. (No-clipping is a term often used in video games that refers to clipping outside of the game borders and has been applied to this concept.)