May Parlar’s Nomadic Experience Of Being

Parlar has multiple degrees in architecture and sustainable design, a background which informs the nature of her photographic work. ‘Once I Fell In Time’ uses floating objects such as gumboots, shirts and balls, arranged in curving patterns and juxtaposed against beaches, forests and rocky land. The series brings into question the notions of identity, perception, and belonging; Parlar uses imagery to search for meaning in consciousness and the human condition. “All those who walked before me on these streets for hundreds of years; all the memories they collected, and their tears, and their joy, all their love, pain, and suffering. Where are they?” asks the photographer. Parlar performs in constructed realities by using the arranged objects as a metaphor for the aforementioned lost people and memories. “What will happen to all our memories who are not remembered?” She continues. “Will they travel back to their source and get recycled, to become someone else’s?”