Elsewhere.

People have always dreamed of being elsewhere. Today more than any other time period, our world allows us to be in different places at the same time. Internet surfing, online chatting, reality TV, or simply picking up the phone can transport one to nearly anywhere on the planet.

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This phenomenon of interconnectedness motivated me to develop "Elsewhere." Which reality--the physical one in which we live or the one into which we are projecting--is our true one? What does it mean to feel more comfortable in a virtual reality than in our "real world"?

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For the photo sessions, I asked my models to close their eyes and imagine their ideal place. Then I spoke to them about what they imagined. Based on their descriptions, I used the search engine "Google Images" to find pictures matching their descriptions. I then downloaded these images and used them to create a personalized background for each sitter.

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This series reflects a contemporary society in which people prefer to close their eyes rather than to look at their environments. But who are we, if we don't look around?

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Eva Mayer was born in 1975 in Zell am See, Austria. After studying stage design at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg, she continued her education through a scholarship at the University of Tennessee. After graduation she moved to New York City to take photography classes at the School of Visual Arts. Since 2000, she has lived and worked in Paris. Several of her projects have been shown in contemporary art fairs and photo festivals in France and abroad. Currently she is represented by the gallery La Peripherie in Paris. For more information visit www.evamayer.com.