Cheryl Maeder is an American abstract photographers whose dreamlike work focuses “on the otherworldliness between reality and the abstract” (Maeder, 2020). In the bio on her website, Maeder writes about the core of work always being “about “connection”; the innate connection to the self, each other and to all other life forms on this planet. I am not separate from nature. I am nature, the environment and the infinite universe” (ibid).

Her approach felt very relevant to my project, in particular her series ‘Submerge’ which explores the relationship between humans and the environment. She uses water as the binding force that connects us to nature, since “the human body contains 70% of water fluids and the oceans waters cover more than 70% of the Earth itself” (Maeder, 2020). Through water we can tap into that connectedness, between us and the Earth and between us and other people/beings.

Maeder’s images blur the lines of photography and painting, her use of lighting turns the surface of the water into a kaleidoscope of patterns and textures underneath which we can make out the distorted features of a human body.

I looked at these photos right at the beginning of the module, but only toward the end, while shooting the ‘plastic’ and ‘ice’ themes I came to understand the significance of these evocative, alluding images.

References:

Maeder, C. (2020) ‘About Cheryl’, Cheryl Maeder Photography [online]. Available at: https://www.maederphotography.com/about [Accessed 16 May 2020].