Liminal Landscapes

Photographic series

2008 – 2011 (ongoing)

lim•i•nal  |’limenl|

adjective technical

1 of or relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.

2 occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

 - New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition, 2001

It could be argued that all landscapes are constantly changing, and are only presumed to be stable in the moment that they are experienced.  There are certainly grand vistas within the collective American psyche that are considered timeless, referring to the long time frame of geologic history, such as the most iconic of these, the Grand Canyon.  My subjects are no less timeless, but they refer to the humble and the familiar in-between landscapes that are only visible momentarily in our periphery.  They are the forgotten or ignored borders where the entropic wilderness meets the fateful planning of civilization, in a simultaneous state of construction and destruction.  These deceptively static landscapes refer to both an unknown past and an uncertain future, and yet wholly exist in and are defined by the ever changing transitory Now.  Intermittent ponds in vacant lots sit adjacent to newly constructed roads to nowhere; abandoned trains recede into serendipitous provisional forests; and fluorescent orange traffic cones stoically demarcate new territories, despite their ephemeral status.  The familiarity of these tableaux make them seem like permanent fixtures, and yet they only exist for brief moments between various stages of becoming, being and fading away from memory.

In some way, almost all of my photography for the past several years fits into this loosely defined series, although these works seem to stand more on their own for me, fitting less conveniently into a particular theme or statement about the landscape.  Their ambiguity also sets them apart from each other, and yet common imagery and compositions emerge which define the visual field of the post-urban landscape.