Illuminate naturally in darkness is Judith Stenneken’s most recent book and follows in her poetic traditions of visual storytelling. In this body of work Stenneken expands the concept of transition as a permanent condition, which in itself could be a mantra for the twenty first century.
Permanence is no longer a leading factor in how we describe our home, work or relationships. The world we live in today is in constant flux. This offers the voyager within it to be the center of their universe. People, objects, empty spaces all become part of this personalized orbit that has no beginning, nor end, forming an Ensō circle that acts as a window into Stenneken’s world of calm emptiness.
Her photographs become vessels for transport, dissolving the notions of departure and arrival by offering us choices to move through not dwell in it. This book is a collection of patterns in motion forming a personalized map of the ordinary. Stenneken’s photographs feel like filtered realities woven together into her unique perspective on how she metamorphoses the volume of existence. It is as if they have floated out of a Raymond Carver poem.
Stenneken has arranged her images to span a full spectrum of sensibilities from the tactile to the translucent; together they form a collective weightlessness that is all about being here not there.
How do we measure the carbon prints we leave in the wake of our comings and goings? A voyager can pause to reflect but not dwell, measuring themselves by the miles accumulated getting from point A to point B. These images of Stenneken beg the question of who pays the toll for the emotional baggage that is lost along the way but never found.
Illuminate naturally in darkness unfolds itself as a visual diary that embraces the impermanence in our culture where the transitional becomes the new normal.
Timothy Persons
Timothy Persons is the founder and director of Gallery Taik Persons, Berlin, where he lives and works.
Judith Stenneken, Illuminate naturally in darkness
Self-Published
$85
