Presently Elsewhere is a subjective account of urban encounter. I am attempting to project my mental state onto the bodies and spaces of Dublin’s streets – withdrawal as coping mechanism, the split between physical presence and mental absence.
Others register as mass and trajectory – not individuals but forms, obstacles to navigate. Bodies are sensed just long enough to adjust course – a slight turn, quickened pace, protective gesture – before attention retreats inward. The camera operates from inside the condition it describes, navigating the same proximity and evasion.
The formal language performs this split through compression (invasive closeness, hard contrast) and dissolution (motion blur, spectral figures, optical erasure). These alternate across the sequence, mirroring how I self-regulate in public – momentary alertness followed by inward retreat.
This is not documenting how people act in public, but attempting to portray the unease of urban proximity. The “social flinch” visible throughout – turned heads, raised hands, bodies adjusting – may be in response to the camera or the condition I’m projecting onto what I see. The ambiguity is intentional: I am both photographer and participant, subject to the same reflexive withdrawal I’m attempting to photograph.
If the work resonates beyond the personal, perhaps it’s because this condition has become pervasive. We coexist by mentally exiting, we share space while inhabiting different worlds, we are close in body yet unreachable in mind. Presently elsewhere.
