INNER ATLAS ( 2017 - 2020 )
The sea plays an intensely important role in Trent Mitchell’s work and life. Having grown up by the beach, and surfing since he was a teenager, it was almost inevitable that he would direct his lens to the ocean. Even when he’s not ostensibly shooting the sea in his projects and commissions, it often manages to creep in there somewhere.
As a photographer, his focus on our relationship with the ocean has shifted with Inner Atlas. In earlier series, there’s a perception that perhaps we have some control over it; we build structures on the beaches, and underwater swimmers, seemingly unaffected by the weight of water, appear to be floating in air. With Inner Atlas, the power of the sea, of the universe – physically and emotionally – is clearly evident, and the only thing to do is to surrender. Resistance is impossible.
That power is seen in its physical and primal effect on the bodysurfers featured – waves are almost tattooed into their flesh, their bodies morph in otherworldly ways, their facial expressions lose all sense of civility and inhibition. But in shaking us up, the ocean also sets us free – it has a transformative emotional and cosmic power. We might step into the sea as an adult, but in doing so, we step away from the weight of the everyday. Time starts doing strange things; the longer we’re in there the more connected we are to our younger selves, the more childlike we feel. The ocean has the ability to revitalise us, in the purest sense of the word. According to Trent Mitchell, it is so much more than a body of water; it’s more like a fountain of youth.
- Leta Keens
