The Landscape as a Representation of Time and Memory

Moving through places that reveal mundane remnants of human activity, Costa Rican photographer Joel Jimenez reflects upon the complex psychological dynamics that exist between people and the environments they inhabit.

There is a symbiotic relationship between humanity and the landscape; they continually evolve, change, and influence one another. This thought is better understood by the notion of the atmosphere: the perceptual state emerging from the resonance between the body’s senses and affective capacities, and the spatial and material qualities of a place.

When the Dust Settles is a study of place and man that is concerned with the psychological and emotional stimuli that arise from that dynamic. Even though sociological and ecological issues are represented throughout the series, they are the outcome of subjective processes; the affections manifested through phenomenological experiences of time, memory, and identity imprinted in space.

These traces of human intervention deal with themes of longing, solitude, and nostalgia, through ambiguous and elusive imagery that respond to the personal experience of the land we inhabit in contemporary society.

Words and Pictures by Joel Jimenez.

Joel Jimenez is a photographer based in San José, Costa Rica. His work is influenced by the theoretical and conceptual analysis of space and its possibilities to convey human conditions, emotional and psychological states, and how it correlates in a broad sense with social issues in our contemporary society. Find him on PHmuseum and Instagram.

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This feature is part of Story of the Week, a selection of relevant projects from our community handpicked by the PHmuseum curators.