Enceladus

is an ongoing series exploring the concept Animism, the belief that certain places, objects and animals possess an essence – a soul. Animism, is considered to be the world’s first universal religion, and it is still the main form of belief for various indigenous groups across the world.

Without knowing why or how, as the concept of animism came later into my knowledge I have felt there is an energy emanating from certain places, animals, figures, rocks. Without reading about animism I had felt what all these people in the past had felt. And in my quests out there I wonder, is that the human mind trying to give meaning into something, or do our senses feel something what we in our logical, western, structured, rational lives have forgotten?

The project is named after Enceladus – son of Gaia and Uranus, who led the giants against the Olympian gods in the epic battle of gigantomachy. He was eventually defeated by Athena and crushed under the island of Sicily with the volcano Etna above his head. It is believed that as the giant moves in pain, and breathes and shies, his movement creates earthquakes, tremors, and makes the volcano erupt.

Photography is unexplicably linked to “reality”. That it is blessing, and it’s curse in a way. Through it though we have the power to actually question what reality is. And in this project I try to use the camera to do that.

Thus with these photographs I try to further explore this feeling, that like the myth of Enceladus, that there are things out there that we can no longer see, but we can still feel the tremors of their energy.