Johnna Arnold's work was the most exciting I saw over the Photo Alliance weekend. This work is centered on freeways in the Bay Area. She places herself within all of the images. Unfortunately, this blog is not a good format to show these extra large images from Johnna's latest portfolio. Please enlarge these images by clicking and find her in the landscape.
She becomes a mostly faceless figure you can relate to, overwhelmed by or blending in with these environments. There is something frightening about seeing the human figure in these forgotten, in-between zones. I'm reminded of a repeating dream I've had of trying to rescue a horse from a busy highway--the terror of the situation, and the impossibility of this creature so far from it's natural habitat...
What I especially liked is the feeling of re-taking ubiquitous large format urban landscape photography that is mostly devoid of any people. Johnna's work puts us back into this world we have made, this time as actors, rather than observers.
Titles (t-b): Best Buy, I-580 & I-80, Oakland, CA; Under the Maze (I-80, I-580 & I-880, Oakland, CA) .
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