‘Sonder’

 ‘Sonder’ is a word that captures the profound feeling of realization that everyone has a life as complex as their own. Reflections are a visual device but they also imply a barrier between the viewer and the subject. In this work, I use reflections as a metaphor for how we experience one another. The inherent disconnect and lack of understanding of the complexity of one another’s lives causes us to experience others through a reflection of our own perspectives. The purpose of my project is to take the overwhelming and somewhat isolating feeling of sonder and use it to celebrate the different and inherently incomprehensible ways each person experiences life so that we can navigate the world with compassion and humility.

All images are silver gelatin darkroom prints