I’m not here is a series of self-portraits photographed in an abandoned hospital. The project is a reflection on mental illness and about identity in a state of transition.
Being in a void between the old and the new, this rite of passage is a vulnerable place. The surroundings can become fluid and one may find themself now completely reset without status or identity. What was before and what will come after?
This transition between two states of being can incite both an aching and unease to return to what one once was but often are unable to return to again.
About Lise Johansson
Lise Johansson is a Danish visual artist and photographer currently based in Copenhagen. The starting point for Johansson’s artistic practice is to create a sense of a distorted reality, where the inspiration comes from the borderland that exists between the conscious and the unconscious. There is a strong personal character to her works: a sense of abandonment and the curiosity towards the unknown. In her work themes of identity and belonging always come up. The images often take departure from physical miniatures of landscapes and architectural spaces, combined with textures and objects photographed to use as building blocks in the editing process. The final images retain an uncanny balance between the natural and the constructed, playing with scale and perspective to make the viewer question what they see.
Johansson is a trained photographer from the Media School in Viborg, Denmark and the art school Vera. Her work has been exhibited in i.a. London, Paris, Copenhagen and New York. In 2017, she received two awards at the acclaimed Sony World Photography Awards and last year she won the title of ‘Photographer of the Year 2020’ in the International Color Awards. [Official Website]
