The following eight photographs are the complete collection of the series

Unseen

I photograph at home with a specially devised setup: using a variety of tactile fabrics, I shoot with a self-timer and a blindfold. Taking pictures without the sense of sight is an interesting challenge - the emotions captured are more spontaneous and less contrived. I am challenged to connect with a more intuitive sense of what I wish to create and I have learnt to let go and focus on what feels right rather than what looks right. There is a vulnerability and an aliveness to this process, a sense of pushing beyond my own boundaries in the creation of this series.

With these images, I’ve worked exclusively with daylight as I love the brief, specific period of time in which you have to create, making the process focused and essential. My choices of textiles are carefully selected for how they interact with the light and with my physical form - it should feel as if the viewer can sense the fabric against their skin or the delicate tickle of the bees crawling over them.

I grew up in the Danish countryside and have always felt connected to the natural world. Each living organism occupies its own unique place in an ecosystem which is both powerful and fragile. It is a power and a fragility that I carry myself and which I am opening up to more and more. Through this creative practice, I have been able to discover and explore my inner world, and so this series maps my own psychic development. 

I am also fascinated with archetypal symbols  used to express the ideas that we hold in our collective unconsciousness; bees that appear so fine and gentle, but which can easily hurt you if there is no respect and caution involved; the purity of a white flower; the butterfly signifying transformation. Other elements such as the thorns on the throat and in the mouth and the suffocating corset hint at the ways women are silenced and oppressed, both in the past and present. 

However I’m also interested in subverting some of the presumed meanings of these symbols: for instance, whilst the blindfold and the mask might traditionally allude to the deliberate ‘dis-abling’ of the feminine, I refigure these as aids to deep, inward self-discovery and empowerment. In fact, the mask gives the subject a dominating quality: it is her choice not to be the passive object of the viewer’s gaze. 

I imagine my photographs just before falling asleep, in the moment before I dream and slip into unconsciousness. Here, close to the dreams, I am closer to myself, and I can better focus on the impressions my subconscious mind works with. There is a long thought process before I embark on a picture but once I begin to shoot, I work instinctively.

I didn’t pre-plan this series, but rather I found that each image sparked inspiration for the next, following my own wild and unpredictable journey of self-discovery. 

In terms of inspiration, I am enthralled with Rembrandt's way of working with light and shade. The American photographer Brooke Shaden is a contemporary artist that I also admire; I think her ability to tell a story with her images and allow the viewer to enter another world.

These works are not self-portraits as such - rather, by drawing on my own inner world, I use myself as a vessel to express the struggle of human experience. 

My hope is that the viewer finds these works moving and liberating, and that by seeing an image that encapsulates these intense emotions, a moment of recognition and clarity is gained.