AGARTHA

Agartha is the hunt for a nameless hometown at the precipice of Portland, Maine, and the Void.

is the hunt for a nameless hometown located somewhere on the precipice of Portland, Maine and The Void. The images are an investigation into the nature and character of Southern Maine and my place in it, via the search for a homeland, after having lived away.

The hypercolorful, hyperreal, flash drenched digital images make assertive use of light to point viewers both towards questions and findings with equal weight - that a statement can in-itself offer questions. The use of digital photography is a deliberate conceptual conceit to the subjective nature of perceptual reality and experience -- that the world we live in is largely a construct made out of slices of perception that we interpolate with our minds much like a digital camera. The use of flash allows me to point directly at those questions and findings. The hyperreal, oversaturated colors are emblematic of the pervasive discomfort of being not at home in one's home, and the constant state of alertness that I tend to feel.

The name, Agartha, also helps point towards the concept - in western esotericism, Agartha, is a hidden kingdom on the inside of the Hollow Earth - an unreachable realm of enlightenment. My claim is that nobody ever really believed in Agartha or the Hollow Earth as actual real things, but that the quest for "Agartha" by venturing through the "Hollow Earth" has always been a metaphor for a spiritual home, or a form of enlightenment within one's self - and that the philosophical metaphor has. This is my hunt for that Agartha.