Lara Gilks Photography

new work and single images

the circle

To Ralph Waldo Emerson, the circle is the most perfect — and, therefore, the most beautiful - geometrical form.

Comparing a landscape to a circle's perfect shape, Emerson finds that the landscape has perfect order; this order creates a unity composed of the eye beholding a scene and the natural light highlighting the scene's inherent beauty.

These images are reflections through a round mirror - they seek to convey a sense of solitude, peace and the calm that comes from being in nature. The frame of the circle and curve of the mirror accentuates and distorts those emotions.

“In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life,—no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

new order

These images are a different take on traditional landscape – they explore the relationship between landscape and light patterns.

We have long held the sense as humans that there is a celestial or other presence beyond what our eye can see in the landscape. For me this is an ancestral and spiritual connection with the landscape and its features.

Through this work I wanted to draw out the presence behind the landscape that we see - to draw out those deeper connections, that we have with the landscape and to represent that through the use of light patterns. Some of those connections are beautiful and ethereal; some are solemn and respectful; some are wild and untamed.

The images are photographed in two phases. The original image is a traditional landscape. That is later re-photographed using coloured glass to refract and superimpose light over the original image. The time of day for that second photographic process will determine the nature of the refracted light - no two moments are the same and it is impossible to replicate an image once taken.

The two processes also reflect the two views of landscape - the superficial view that the eye sees, and the deeper one that the eye does not see.

This is how I have always imagined landscape – as a blank canvas for world of light, magic, and vivid colour.

Devoid

Equipped with an antique mirror owned by my father, I returned to my favourite childhood place - Central Otago, Using the mirror, I reflected the trees alongside the river edge. As a child I climbed those trees and swam in that river.

The images of the trees are distorted, which reflects the distortion of my memory through the passing of time. The place endures, but there has been change. The trees, the water, my view of them, and I have all evolved. Time has distorted all of that.

The images convey an eerie wintriness - devoid of leaf, colour, warmth. Yet for me there remains a depth of nostalgic connection to my childhood - which is warming.

white lies

You wear a mask for
so long, you begin to
forget who you were
beneath it.

Alan Moore

}

my backyard theatre

I often sit in my backyard and create concepts for my work. I also use it as a set for my photography.

The genesis for this body of work came from the concept of using my backyard as a theatre. I often view life and the world around me through the lens of a play - the set, the characters, the audience, the plot, the dialogue. There is a drama about everyday life that could as easily be playing out on a stage.

I use that idea as a frame for this work – it provides the opportunity to capture a still moment, one scene of the play in isolation. This in turn requires the viewer to fill in the detail – the plot, what led to the moment, and what may flow from it.

My backyard is the set. It is barren, cold and the props create tension. I focus on the characters – they are disguised, obscured - they taunt, spook and challenge the traditional sense of a backyard scene. They seem surprised by being caught in the image. The audience is unseen. The plot and dialogue is humorous and playful, yet spooky, surreal and disturbing.

I seek to create a body of work that disturbs the everyday reality – that allows for an escape from reality into the playful but spooky world of drama. The masks reflect the idea of the actors seeing but not being seen – the idea of the costume that allows one to look out but keeps the world from looking in. That sense of drama reflects the world as I see it.

we float

‘We float’ depicts the aspiration of transcending our everyday lives to a floating state - free, calm, disconnected, seeing our lives play out below.

This is an ongoing series.

beneath the ice

As a child I spent my winters in Central Otago, New Zealand where we would visit a small lake that was iced over – Diamond Lake.

I loved the beauty of the winter environment and the exhilaration of being on the ice - but was also extremely fearful and anxious of falling through it. The most vulnerable area of the lake was the edge with the reeds and winter flowers. I would imagine falling through the ice and reaching out for the plants to save me.

That conflict between being drawn to exhilaration and fighting fear, beauty and tragedy, was a constant marker in my younger life and in many respects has carried through to my adult experience.

Through these images I wanted to revisit and uncover that fear of being trapped beneath the ice – bringing together beauty and tragedy – reflecting a process of shock, terror, resistance, acceptance and finally a return to peace.

The images seek to capture that final moment in the conflict – a return to the beauty and peace.

disquiet

This is a series that seeks to challenge our reality through the use of incongruous elements in an image. This creates a disquiet in the image and may be unexpected, evocative, haunting, beautiful.

Through this series I explore the boundary of the real and the surreal. These are core themes in my work - tension, disquiet and challenge.

identity and disclosure

The brink of a digital identity crisis - where the digital era tests the limits of identity - what is safe to disclose and what must be concealed. There are questions of trust and vulnerability - the stakes are high.

This series explores youth on that brink - experimenting with observation and disclosure - through the layers of the digital mask.