A Certain Resistance

This project grew out of my experience of immigration and the search for belonging in an unfamiliar place. Through the body and the landscape, I explore adaptation, ageing, and the difficulty of remaining flexible in the face of change.

In the photographs, the body bends, curls, and presses itself into the landscape, trying to fit into the forms of the stone. At times, the rocks seem protective, almost like a shelter. At others, their scale and permanence make the human figure appear fragile and temporary.

While working on this series, I also began thinking about age. I turned thirty, and I increasingly feel that our habits, sense of self, and ways of moving through the world become more fixed over time. Adaptation begins to require more inner effort. Stone becomes not only part of the environment, but also a metaphor for this internal state — something already formed, less malleable, gradually hardening.

The relationship between body and stone reflects the tension of adapting to a new country while trying not to lose one’s own shape.

Colour shifts throughout the series, moving between heightened saturation, muted tones, and the absence of colour. At times, perception becomes almost stoned — oversaturated and emotionally charged — while at others it withdraws into restraint.

The project is about adaptation as an ongoing process: how much we can change in order to belong, and what we choose to preserve.