lost and found: Loco-Motion

FICTIONAL LANDSCAPES - MOVING TRAIN SERIES

In my photo series, Locomotion, I capture fictional snippets of the world by photographing and selectively cropping panoramic images taken from fast-moving trains. The camera stitches together multiple images as the train moves while the camera software compiles a finished fictional image that differs from the actual view seen from the train. Sometimes, fiction conveys the truth more effectively than straightforward facts and can help us understand the complexity and absurdity of the world and within ourselves…

Trains traverse linear slices of our landscape and society, revealing multiple layers of history, culture, and time. As the train moves, the passenger is prompted to reflect on the lives of those who have lived and currently reside in these areas along the train line. There is a historical connection between the train systems and the culture of the South.

I love the distortion of reality in this series of images, including the verticality of the ground plane and the train tracks, in a way that standard photography cannot capture. The warping of the images caused by the train's movement and the imperfect nature of the technology in this process mimics how our brains perceive time and space through our selective lens of history, personal experiences, and collective memories, linking the past to the present and distorting time. This creates a blend of pictorial elements in both linear and non-linear ways.