Mike Busby Gallery - Out There: Thresholds

I had read Space and Place when I started photographing infrared years ago, and Yi-Fu Tuan has since become a significant influence for my work.

Out There 

Tuan describes “place” as somewhere we do so something like work, play, worship or sleep. “Space” is freedom – places we can reflect and explore without concern of what others might think.

Govan Window

 I like the idea of places reflecting the passage of time and stagnant ideas, and spaces representing new exploration. Doors and windows become thresholds to new notions and ideas.   

Manresa Grotto

We believe the world to be a certain way, and then something happens and we’re reminded of how the world really is. The tendency is to rationalize away what makes us uncomfortable, but it is during these events that many doors and windows present themselves.  The uncomfortable and the painful become opportunities for new horizons.

Room With a View

Photography isn’t necessarily the best medium for complex messages, but it does have the ability to kick us out of the daily grind.  The images started as contrasting place and space, but they are slowly evolving to include larger and grander themes for 'space.'   

Reference

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. 1977. Print.