Rachelle Mendez

Displaying swaths of the urban landscape as unoccupied while revealing layer upon layer of seemingly blank architectural elements, is ultimately what I aim to execute in the composition of my photography.

Spatial distancing creates leading lines with maximal scale. Suggesting a confrontational viewing experience I choose to frame the composition with elements bleeding off the edges; a nod to the confrontation we navigate through in our environments every day.

When I’m out shooting these urban landscapes in Southern California, I’m looking for bold colors and a dramatic blank surface, but the interest comes in the layering of those elements and how space or lack of space can create an organized, almost painterly, chaotic abstract.

Through bold composition that runs from edge to edge, these photographs are my attempt to push something into nothing and still be whole. The question remains, how far can it be pushed?