Always Dreaming

We never question what is happening in our dreams until after we wake. At any moment, faces blur, time shifts, or the environment changes before our eyes. All appears normal, and we progress through these realms without asking a single question.

It’s remarkable how our subconscious functions that way during sleep. While in the waking world, we’re easily startled by the house making a funny noise. I am, at least. 

Despite the unreal visuals and bending of space, the aesthetic of dreams is often closer to our daily lives than high fantasy. Yes, we dream of monsters and humans flying, but in my experience, the dream world is like the waking one but just a little off.  This is the premise for photographing scenes of the outdoors for my body or work, Always Dreaming.

While outdoors, I often notice things that seem out of place. It’s challenging to put into words because it was a feeling I got at the time and place. In short, the scenes reminded me of stills from a dream. I began manipulating the light using custom-made filters placed over the lens to visualize this feeling generated by my subconscious.

Through visual manipulation and relying on my subconscious to choose each scene, these photographs are meant to be a window into the dream world. By creating this work, I want to draw a line between the waking world and the dream world by showing that everyday life can appear as unreal as the realms we explore while we sleep.