Description
Maria Lax is a London based photographer originally from a small town in Northern Finland. She is known for her use of colour and experimental camera techniques.
Maria Lax’s work has been exhibited at fairs and festivals worldwide. Lax was one of the winners of British Journal of Photography’s Female in Focus awards, 2019 and a finalist in the BJP Portrait of Humanity, 2020, PHMuseum Photography Grant Finalist, 2020, Winner of the In Cadaques festival Open Call, 2020.
Maria’s first monograph, Some Kind of Heavenly Fire was published in February 2020 and is currently on it’s second print run. It was chosen as one of the photobooks of the year by Photobookstore and one of the 5 finalists for the Finnish Photobook of the Year 2020. Taken by the Tide was published by Nazraeli Press, 2023, is available as part of their One Picture Books series.
Maria was selected as one of the ‘Best New Talent of Photo London 2020’ by the Guardian and is the recipient of the Finnish Art Promotion Centre’s One Year Grant for 2021.
Contact: tom@opendoors.gallery
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Taken by the Tide
“Returning to my childhood home after many years away, I realised that the place I once knew no longer in existed — except in my memories. Feeling alienated and as though the last ties to my native country had been severed, I spent years drifting in search for a new place to call home. This process confronted me with the questions of what it means to belong, and how to shape an identity as an immigrant in a fragmented world.” – Maria Lax, 2023
Taken by the Tide explores the ideas of home, memory and place. The images in this series present a world where the familiar appears alien and crashing waves from the rising tide pull one further out to the open sea of loneliness. Dark yet not completely without hope, the series is also a hand reaching towards the generations who came before me to understand more about the generational traumas, hopes and fears that have echoed in my blood through the decades.
