Aleah Ford
"Sehnsucht" is a German word that describes an intense longing for things unknown. It is not a nostalgia for the past, but a desire for things that may never be. Heavily influenced by a childhood year in Germany, my work takes on a Romantic Northern European aesthetic and philosophy. Romanticism, myth, and fantasy, often turn to a pre-enlightened world-view explaining the mysterious in mystical and mythological terms. In a culture permeated with enlightenment based rationale, fantasy becomes the soothing cloth for the fever of futility. It celebrates those functions which are rendered irrelevant by enlightened society.
With a multi-disciplinary approach, I construct and photograph melancholic and fanciful scenes. The scenes are produced on location with natural light and utilize trompe l’oeil effects to create an “other world” within our own. A core foundation of these narratives is the suspension of disbelief, which places a heavy emphasis on the quality and realism of the costumes, props, and emotions expressed. The scenes may be lovely, but, as Edmund Burke wrote in his analysis of the beautiful and sublime, "Beauty in distress is the most affecting beauty."
With a multi-disciplinary approach, I construct and photograph melancholic and fanciful scenes. The scenes are produced on location with natural light and utilize trompe l’oeil effects to create an “other world” within our own. A core foundation of these narratives is the suspension of disbelief, which places a heavy emphasis on the quality and realism of the costumes, props, and emotions expressed. The scenes may be lovely, but, as Edmund Burke wrote in his analysis of the beautiful and sublime, "Beauty in distress is the most affecting beauty."
