Obstructed Views
Dafna Talmor
The physical and psychological relationship between inside and outside, the relationship between a subject and their space and how one affects the other, are themes I have explored in depth for a number of years.
In Obstructed Views, an ongoing series of self-portraits, the photographs are triggered by the space itself. The window, a recurring element in this series, suggests the outside world as it paradoxically extends the view. For even though the window offers this extension, it is also what denies the viewer the knowledge of what lies outside.
In earlier work, the obstruction to what was outside was complete. However, in more recent work, the interplay between the window and the view has been extended. Though I have started exposing what is outside the window, this outside remains hazy. Something is always in the way of obtaining the full view. The view outside does not provide enough information to give specificity. Instead, it acts as a projected space and state of mind.
I am in no way interested in talking of a specific place or for that matter, (in spite of using myself and people close to me in my photographs), about people as individuals. Using my Subjects as stand-ins, with the aim of removing a kind of subjectivity, is what I aspire to achieve through my photographic work. My practice revolves around notions of home and bridging the gap between the autobiographical and the universal.
In Obstructed Views, an ongoing series of self-portraits, the photographs are triggered by the space itself. The window, a recurring element in this series, suggests the outside world as it paradoxically extends the view. For even though the window offers this extension, it is also what denies the viewer the knowledge of what lies outside.
In earlier work, the obstruction to what was outside was complete. However, in more recent work, the interplay between the window and the view has been extended. Though I have started exposing what is outside the window, this outside remains hazy. Something is always in the way of obtaining the full view. The view outside does not provide enough information to give specificity. Instead, it acts as a projected space and state of mind.
I am in no way interested in talking of a specific place or for that matter, (in spite of using myself and people close to me in my photographs), about people as individuals. Using my Subjects as stand-ins, with the aim of removing a kind of subjectivity, is what I aspire to achieve through my photographic work. My practice revolves around notions of home and bridging the gap between the autobiographical and the universal.