Slowing Down

“Slowing Down” examines the idea of “big themes” in art, particularly in photography, questioning how and why certain themes become more valuable than others and analyzing the mechanisms that underlie these processes of hierarchization. By observing and photographing my everyday life, I focus on the ordinary, the small, and the simple as a counterpoint to the shiny, loud, and astonishing, which typically garners attention within the dominant way of viewing the world in capitalism, particularly within the wider public media sphere.

Having previously worked in the advertising industry, I was often surrounded by the constant need to create images and narratives that attract attention, stand out, and communicate a sense of desirability. This quite tiresome experience became one of the triggers for this series, as it crystallized my need to take time off and give myself space to observe the world at a pace that feels natural to me. In a photographic sense, this way of looking developed intuitively, as I found value in not pushing for extraordinary narratives, but instead allowing meaning to come from ordinary and overlooked moments. While following this slower pace of viewing the world and consciously ignoring the imposed expectations of productivity and purposefulness, I have tried to create places of rest, pause, and silence within daily experience.

The photographs were taken over the course of a full year, intertwining intimate details with seemingly banal, generic motifs of contemporary life, which thereby also gain new, gentle meanings through acts of attention, observation, and prolonged looking.

Sanja Merćep is part of »Guest Room: Annett Dekker & Margriet Schavemaker«.