Laara Cerman

Laara Cerman’s work explores the intersection of art, science, and history and themes of impermanence, a return to nature, and the fragility of life. She creates her photographs by capturing multiple digital images and then piecing them together in post-production, a skill she has mastered through working as a freelance retoucher in the commercial photography industry.

Currently, she creates her digital images using a regular flatbed office scanner rather than a sophisticated camera. Paradoxically, the crude scanner produces images that appear hyperreal in part due to their macro and larger-than-life clarity that emphasizes extreme detail one would normally have difficulty seeing with the naked eye. The images have an extremely narrow depth of field and low luminosity, an affect that cannot be achieved through studio lighting or with a camera. This makes the subject appear floating in a black void of space, creating a feeling akin to a momento mori.

She is currently focused on documenting the wild plants of British Columbia for one of her more recent series, Codex Pacificus