Photography Atelier

The Space Between

Everyone runs.
I remain still, dazed.
Somewhere between the vast sea
and the blue sky,
In the land of dreams.
Fading away,
Filled with questions.
Mystery sinking into my skin.
Seeping, burning.
Still alone,
Still waiting.

I have been keeping dream journals for many years. I have recurring dreams. There are dreams that reveal themselves only after a long time. Others, however, inform my waking life immediately. Like Carl Jung, I don’t believe dreams need to be interpreted; they are doing their work just by linking the known with the unknown.

In this series, I am re-enacting my dreams. To create these images, I use metaphors and symbols. I write poetry, sketch my visions, and then I capture them with my camera using toy and vintage lenses to create a blur reality.

Claudia Ruiz-Gustafson is a Massachusetts-based photographer. She grew up in the bohemian seacoast town of Barranco in Lima, Perú. Her work is often autobiographical and a mix of the metaphorical and the symbolic. The female figure is a constant theme in her images. She regards photography as a medium for exploring her inner world.

Ruiz-Gustafson studied Communications at Universidad de Lima, and Professional Photography at Kodak Interamericana de Perú where she learned alternative darkroom processes. In Lima, she worked as a freelance photographer for a local feminist magazine and a regional newspaper. She has also studied art and photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the New England School of Photography and the Griffin Museum of Photography. In 2005, she started her own photography business in the Boston area.

Ruiz-Gustafson’s work has been exhibited in several local museums and galleries, among them the Griffin Museum of Photography, Danforth Art Museum, Sohn Fine Art Gallery, U-Forge Gallery, Fountain Street Gallery, the Providence Center for Photographic Arts, and at the Cambridge Art Association Galleries.