theaethermirror

[theaethermirror]

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower, hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity in an hour" - William Blake

The Aether Mirror, A Transmirrored Photography Series.

Before we continue I'd like to clarify that the world I've created with this photography series is intended as fiction so how you decide to perceive it is ultimately dependent on you and your beliefs.

Now let’s start this off by delving into the core concept, what is "The Aether Mirror" The Aether Mirror is a metaphysical concept that acts as a bridge between our world & 'The Aether Realm' It is not a physical mirror but rather a function.

This function enables us to reflect the existence of otherworldly entities, like gods and ancient primordial forces that pre-date humanity.

The Aether Mirror refers to the act of mirroring objects through my photography into abstractions, and through that process, creating perfect symmetry. That perfect symmetry and control of visual chaos from things in the world around us (Isolating Chaos) acts as a metavisual and subconscious window that reflects things beyond our reality.

This mirroring process thins the veil between dimensions and creates a window into the Aether Realm that's primarily accessible through the subconscious mind (More on that later) Narratively the mirrored images in my work are more than aesthetic choices as they can reveal vague reflections of beings from the Aether Realm.

These Aethers can manifest themselves through the complexities found in various materials such as wood, stone and water when mirrored. These materials act as conduits that allow them to manifest their presence into our minds.

However, what we see are merely distorted versions of their true forms. Because of this, the pieces in the series often share base visual traits like wood, because the material doesn't matter, only the visual complexities within what i'm photographing.

These beings could appear in a bowl of soup, if the visual chaos and creative structure behind them aligned perfectly. Wood, stone, and water happen to have deeply fluid and chaotic visual traits, and because of the real world tether, it makes it that much easier. By using photography and my stylistic structure, I am visually transforming everyday elements of the world around us into otherworldly forms.

It also serves as a way to transform the medium of photography and to define mirrored photography as its own visually distinct genre." in conjunction with the narrative and the visuals i've effectively created a new genre in photography. I call this transformative subgenre 'Transmirrored Photography.'

I describe 'Transmirrored Photography' as the act of mirroring a photograph into something uniquely transformative with its own distinct visual identity. In essence, Transmirrored photography is akin to alchemy.

The symmetrical reflections in the art morph our perception of reality into something else entirely. The post-processing aspect is the photographing equivalent to tracing with my imagination.

I see very specific creatures and entities in the things i photograph and from there i mirror the photograph to create the full picture and use post-editing software to highlight the traits of what i see to the point where the abstract becomes objective.

Just as alchemy sought to turn lead into gold, my photos turn the familiar into something transformative, conceptually or further depending on your beliefs.

The psychological component of the Aether series lies in its ability to tap into the subconscious mind through the Pareidolia effect.

The Pareidolia effect is a scientific term regarding the human tendency to assign meaning to abstract visuals. This effect is crucial because conceptually, the Aether Realm is most accessible in dreams (More on that soon) when the subconscious mind takes over.

On a metaphysical level this is why your subconscious mind perceives entities and other things in my photography, because when you dream you touch the veil of the Aether and your subconscious is retaining aspects of what you saw from the Aether in your dreams. Your brain is then connecting the beings you saw on the other side of the veil from your dreams with my abstractions.

Its like gazing into the reflection of a rippling puddle, these pieces show us glimpses of another world, but they are imperfect and fleeting. The true form of these entities are only visible within the Aether Realm, where the rules of time and space bend in ways incomprehensible to the human mind.

There are currently over 40 different Aether types in the series, some from traditional folklore and religion and others unique onto themselves.