Where Solitude Meets the Wake of Constant Happening

As the eve of graduation slowly crept in, the circle of mismatched friends who carried me through took ourselves on a day-trip to the Gulf Coast. Grand Isle, Louisiana became our final reprieve from the insular bubble of campus life. It was unapologetically Southern—locals eyed our unconventional dress, chuckled at our Cajun-less accents, and then carried on with the rhythms of their day. The further we drove, the more the place took on the feel of a ghost town, as though our arrival had disrupted its solitude. Amid our restless energy in a town so still, my film camera captured the two clashing energies between the urgency of movement and the calm indifference of place.

 

There are many subjects in these frames, but the central figure I was aiming to spotlight was the engulfing feeling of lonesomeness in a world surrounded by life in constant movement. These images explore how solitude can feel total, but in reality, the earth is always disturbing it with its unpredictable, unapologetic creation of life, both human and other-than-human. I wanted this project to project the relationship between two opposing forces: internal stillness vs. external motion.

Shot on 35mm B&W Kentmere Film (ISO 400)
Printed on B&W Fiber-based Paper