Liminal Space

リミナル・スペース / late-2010s– / Aesthetic / Internet Aesthetics

Photographs transitional spaces empty when people ought to be in them, drawing out déjà vu, loneliness and the sense that time has stopped. The subjects carry their own names in circulation, from the empty indoor pool to the night corridor to the mall after closing.

Liminal Space — Empty shopping centre (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © JIP
Empty shopping centre (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © JIP
Liminal Space — Mall concourse (CC BY 4.0) · © Pokemonprime
Mall concourse (CC BY 4.0) · CC BY 4.0 · © Pokemonprime
Liminal Space — Shopping centre late at night (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © JIP
Shopping centre late at night (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © JIP

At a glance

Visual cues

  • Empty corridors
  • Fluorescent light
  • Dated interiors
  • Public space after midnight

Best used for

  • Photographing empty facilities at night to show that time has stopped
  • Choosing settings for work about waiting and passing through

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Dictionary entry

Type
Keep the existing wayfinding signs and add no new lettering
Composition
Shoot corridors head on in one point perspective with nobody present
Material
Greenish fluorescent white, dated flooring, damp reflections, weak shadows
Caution
The more unusual the building, the less it touches memory, because the sense of having been here only arrives in ordinary places everyone has passed through.
Further study
The Backrooms / transitional architecture / anemoia

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