Mai Naito, Wundervei (ART 2025)

Wundervei explores the experience and memory of the natural world through photography. Inspired by my personal childhood, the work visually depicts my emotional encounters when passing through natural spaces. The work aims to encourage audience to discover a deeper connection between themselves and the natural environment through sheer visual pleasure and appreciation. Personally, a memory is defined as an impression that melds visual fragments over the course of a moment. To create the pieces, photographs of intriguing moments were taken while walking through natural scenery. These photographs were then digitally layered and compressed to form a single image - depicting a passage of time within a single frame and creating an entire memory that can be held in our hands and become physical again.     By digitally layering several photographs it is intended that the work initially be read as a painting before closer inspection where the characteristics of digital technology and the photographic become apparent. By considering the role of photography and historical paintings in representing the natural landscape, and in turn, our recollections, the work aims to question the opinion that photography is a mere technological process and a tool for depicting realism devoid of human soul or emotion. 

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.