Julia Heurling
Artist/Designer

A horizon is not flat

In the summer of 2014 I spent one month on Kefalonia participating in the “Mapping Kefalonia” workshop. The result was the project “A horizon is not flat”. It can be seen as an investigation in how to invite a viewer to read or visit a place through photography, and the limits and extensions of visual perception and representation of specific photographic works. After the stay I have continued working on the concept and the visual outcome. The poster is a result of this work.

By taking photos of the landscape in series I want to accentuate the human experience of place, focusing on ground perspective and three dimensional experience. The series aim to describe continuity, context and viewer perspective of visual appearance. When combined into patterns, the images address questions as: What do repeat do to the visual content in a photography? Will it be redundant or are other qualities than motive given attention?

Photography is often regarded as a tool of proof, or a medium of truth. A photograph proves, and reproduces the photographers visual experience. It is a sample of experienced reality. I see and use photographs as a tool for visual thinking. Photographs give opportunity to explore reality in separate constituent parts. When working with pattern, interrelations, continuity and rhythm within a composition are equally important as content of an image. The project can be seen as a subjective and slightly fictional take on a documentary medium as photography.

Similar to the idea of abstraction, pattern can be a tool to clarify, simplify and exaggerate certain visual characteristics. “A horizon is not flat” aims to communicate and highlight characteristics as shape, colour and spatial changeability of Kefalonian views and appearances. In the naturalist school sense, pattern also illustrates the idea of “reproducing nature by carrying it to its maximum power and intensity”.
“Next Nature” suggests the idea of reality as a flow of variables and I think “Ahorizon is not flat” is closely linked to this idea.
Visual experience is different to every individual, and to every moment of life. I think the differences, however small, are more interesting than what unites our visual experiences. I aim to use photography to emphasize reality as continuous, pluralistic and diverse rather than actual. Suggesting ambiguity and doubt rather than certainty is key to describing reality.

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