Once upon a time, in a place far, far away…: The paradoxical third space and the photography of Jaap Scheeren and Babette Kleijn
“I don’t remember, but I wanted to go back to sleep and keep dreaming.”
—- The girl Ako in Hiroshi Teshigahara’s short film Ako/White Morning (1963).
Where exactly are we, when we are looking at a photo? Asking the question is easier than providing answers. At the most, we can talk about it in approximate terms. So, instead of pretending to be able to answer the question, I would like to offer a few possible routes of thought. When I think about being absorbed in a photographic image, I am not thinking about being somewhere physically or geographically, but about being somewhere mentally. In other words, looking at photographs takes the observer into a kind of reality that differs from that of sleeping, dreaming, grocery shopping, talking to someone, etcetera. Moreover, looking at photos creates a different experience from looking at paintings or other kinds of two-dimensional images.
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2011-2023