Megan L. Novak: Anonymous Spaces

This is a project I have been working on for several years, where I explore the liminality and surrealism found in the mundane architecture of industry and suburbia. Growing up outside of Chicago, buildings like these are everywhere. As I started to practice photography and see more of the world, I noticed this type of banal architecture was all around us, in the backgrounds of our lives. In this way, these structures feel both familiar and foreign. I play with how much “reality” I include in my work, but I enjoy creating images that feel like they are on the verge of real and unreal. Viewers can picture these places in their own world, stripped back and cleaned of everyday grime. The architecture of capitalism and industry is something we are all familiar with. The buildings themselves have attractive aspects, while they are simultaneously a part of a much larger, uglier system of exploitation. Some of these structures are currently in use, some are abandoned, and some have even since been torn down; in my work, they all appear the same. They have histories of their own, but to us they are anonymous spaces.