Photographer Sonja Braas

Sonja Braas photography is a culmination of a world spanning project which has been in the making for several years. Braas makes photographs in museums of natural history or zoology in which one passes through different environment zones. These are constructed of three-dimensional materials with painted backdrops receding into a mysterious distance. These “sets” can feature stuffed birds with real feathers, plastic or real branches and rocks and artificially simulated daylight, all to instantly convey an atmospheric exotic vision of a far away place. These generalized representations of distant “real” places are in themselves “non” places; though pass on an experience of progressing through rainforest, mountainscape, savannah, desert, wetland etc. Braas frames out the museum surroundings and information plaques of these displays so they appear as nameless natural wilderness. The reputation of photography as truth-teller, “the camera never lies” seals the believability of Braas’ work.

                                              >>> Sonja Braas