Dane Pollok is an artist and freelance photographer. He develops personal projects, produces books and mounts exhibitions while also shooting editorial and commercial client work. Allegory is an intrinsic part of his creative process. Through this approach he explores such themes as belonging, place, identity and time. His goal is to connect the viewer to his work through their own personal histories and interpretations. He often describes his approach to making photographs by referencing a John Steinbeck quote from ‘Of Mice and Men’:
“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.”
Honeymoon
When my mother moved to Mexico in her early sixties I first began photographing her in relation to the place, focusing on an outsider navigating the nuances and privileges of being dislocated. Yet as the years progressed and Mexico became home I began to see something more: this process of starting over had become inseparable from the more profound journey of her own aging.
With time I came to see how she was wrestling with a growing tension, one that volleyed her between the internal reality and the external one. How she felt and what she yearned to find on this new trajectory began to collide with her own physicality and the reality that time no longer seemed infinitely ahead of her. She couldn’t help but consider each new decision under an encroaching shadow.
Ultimately, moving to Mexico was more than a mere geographical shift. Time’s steady insistence on change meant that she was leaving behind who she had been and feeling for the first time an actual proximity to that ultimate unknown: death. Yet she chose to chart a new course nonetheless, and standing at this new threshold endeavored to create who she was still yet to become.
To view more of Dane’s work please visit their website.