I Made A Surreal Selfportrait Photo Series While Roadtripping To The Usa

An unnamed figure beneath a bright blue sky, parts of her skin covered by seven round shaped objects just as blue as her surroundings. Is this young woman being confronted or protected? The next image grants a slightly wider look on the landscape: rocky, dry, desolate. A tree, partly colored in an intense shade of red, brutally cuts through the frame. Another unnamed figure, dressed in the same red, sits on top of the bole.

Zzyzx vividly resonates my approach of photography and the art of image making: playful and fantastic. I added ‘special effects’ to make my dreamed of landscapes come to life – a luminous life enriching our often-dull surroundings. To achieve this I use many different techniques (both analogue and digital) and so I refuse to be bound by any limitations or rules.

Another characteristic for my work are the outstretched, desolate landscapes. Zzyzx was shot on a trip through the west and south of America. I like to consider the road as my studio, material and canvas: my work is inspired on, thought out and created while wandering from one national park to the other. Moreover, each tool and attribute used in the shots was acquired locally and left behind when returning home. This boundless playfulness and radical trust on her intuition enables a fundamental part of my method as a photographer: to work together with the landscape, instead of forcing anything upon it.

The name ZZYZX is the name of a city I drove by, it reminded me of a digital color code.

I just published my first photobook, if you're interested check out my website!

More info: sanjamarusic.nl