Mario Dante Napoli

Sleepwalking in Oak Valley

Sleepwalking in Oak Valley is a series of photographic tableaux that challenges the tradition of representation in photography by inherently questioning reality in a sequence of digitally and physically manipulated images. By redefining the landscape of my childhood surroundings in suburbia and presenting an environment that exists in a liminal space, between imagined and staged, this work reveals themes of domesticity and placeless-ness and their connection to dreams and reality.  

I use methods to create my images such as Artificial lighting like handheld LEDs, external flashes, vehicle headlights as well as the use of long exposures to emphasize the quality of light in the scene. Digital reconstructions like multiple images stitched together through Photoshop, manipulated forms and colors, and added textual elements, as well as physical manipulation as projections, adding and positioning props and models. 

These methods allow the work to create a unique narrative. By creating images through physical and digital manipulation, I’m able to shift the preconceived narrative of a landscape of familiar suburban spaces and question the fabrication and authenticity of the locations (or scenes). These questions are important because not only are they related to the process of making but are also connected to the subject matter.