This Room Will Survive Me

“I began photographing myself with an obsolete professional instant camera and expired film after termination of a long psychoanalysis,” artist Cindy Konits says in a statement. Turning the camera on herself in a series of rooms and outdoor spaces, she delved into an exploration of what she describes as “psychic space” in architecture. Outside of a room, she is herself, a separate and independent entity. Once inside, however, the lines between self and environment, inside and outside, blur.

This Room Will Survive Me, published by Schilt Publishing & Gallery, contains dozens of images from the namesake series, which Konits began in 2019 and continues today. Fuzzy interiors we imagine to be bedrooms, living rooms, and other domestic spaces are contrasted with the occasional visit to a forest, field, or intimate back yard. Images are double-exposed with chemical bleeding and chromatic irregularities that lend a dreamlike, even trance-like sensibility to the artist’s luminous form and dappled sunlight through autumnal trees and windows.

“In these images, Konits examines architecture as a holding environment that supports emotional and reflective thought, functioning as a container for the storage and recall of experience embedded in rooms, buildings, and the physical features that define natural boundaries,” the publisher says. See more on its website.

All images © Condy Konits, courtesy of Schilt Publishing & Gallery.