East of the Sun, West of the Moon

"Untitled #1"

I'm excited to reveal one of my new projects this year -- East of the Sun, West of the Moon. I've included the first twelve images from this project in a gallery on my website.

As for what it is about, please find my project statement below:

Stories of distant and mysterious lands have stirred my imagination since I was a young child, curled up each day with some type of escapist literature, whether it be mythology, fairy tales, or fantasy. In these stories, the best and most interesting worlds were those that were difficult to reach for the protagonist. Even now, when I am immersed in the natural world of this planet, I am still seeking glimpses of those alternative worlds with my photography.

A famous Norwegian tale talks of a young woman who sets off in search of her prince, who has been banished to the castle of his wicked stepmother. The young woman knows only that the castle is located east of the sun and west of the moon and, after many adventures and false steps, she reaches this difficult-to-find castle and rescues the prince. A place that is east of the sun and west of the moon has been known since as a place that is effectively part of another world and notoriously hard to reach.

In this project, I seek out landscapes that are evocative of another world, that seem to be of a different universe, time, or place than our own. Like those stories that fed my imagination in my own youth, these landscapes are portals to lands that lay east of the sun and west of the moon.