As we expand further out into the galaxy our own world can appear to become much smaller, with satellite mapping and mobile communications often leading to a feeling that there are very few places left on Earth to be truly discovered. Yet as human beings we have an innate desire to explore and there is much still to be unearthed within our own boundaries. The main fields of exploration are now at extreme lengths of scale, with the continuing development of rocket power and telescope technology enabling us to reach further into the universe than ever before, mirrored by experiments and manipulations of the unimaginably small in scientific research and medical laboratories.
These ‘Astronoids’ were found while observing and exploring objects in the immediate environment, in both familiar and unfamiliar surroundings. Using experimental photography techniques they have been manipulated in camera to resemble astronomical bodies, adapting the idea of verisimilitude in photography to subvert the viewer as our subconscious works to resolve the images. They occupy a middle ground and come from an everyday world already seen and recorded by many, yet our preconceptions of modern space imagery convert them into an exploration of unknown frontiers, using the known, in an echo of humanity’s continuing expansion inward and outward.
