"Lupine" by Photographer Daniel Dorsa

"A photographic examination of grief, memory, and time by Los Angeles-based photographer Daniel Dorsa. Dorsa's work explores relationships between people and the landscapes that connect them. "Lupine" was created during a ten-day journey around Iceland's Ring Road. The work serves as both a personal elegy and a meditation on trauma. More than simply documenting a place, Dorsa uses the landscape as a framework for introspection and to suggest that physical displacement can create pathways to emotional clarity and reconstruction."

"The year leading up to this trip to Iceland was filled with personal trauma. We lost our home indirectly to the fires, ER visits became a regular occurrence, and we suffered a loss. The loss was enormous and a feeling I won't ever quite shake. Iceland started off as a challenge. Seemingly unrelated moments and twenty-four hour daylight came together like a fever dream, revealing a mental state of chaos, disillusionment, and uncertainty."

"No start or finish, just an infinite loop. As we neared the end of the trip, my sense of self began to return. Different from who I was before, but still myself. The title 'Lupine' references the invasive yet beautiful wildflower that blankets Iceland's summer landscape. Like the emotions explored in the work, the lupine plant holds a duality: healing yet disruptive, natural yet foreign."

A photographic project titled "Lupine" was created during a ten-day journey around Iceland's Ring Road. The project examines grief, memory, and time through images that link people and landscapes. The landscape operates as a framework for introspection, suggesting physical displacement can create pathways to emotional clarity and reconstruction. The narrative arises from intensive personal trauma experienced prior to the trip, including loss of a home, frequent ER visits, and bereavement, which produced feelings of chaos, disillusionment, and an infinite loop. Continuous daylight amplified disorientation, and toward the trip's end a recovering sense of self emerged alongside the lupine wildflower's duality of healing yet disruptive, natural yet foreign. The project has been published as a zine.

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