"It is almost banal to say so yet it needs to be stressed continually: all is creation, all is change, all is flux, all is metamorphosis." This body of work deals with the seemingly simple fact that Henry Miller states so clearly in this quote: Everything is ongoing and never finished. Transition is a constant condition. There is no beginning, middle and end. There is no sunset, nor is there a sunrise – instead we are the ones in motion.

Judith Stenneken uses metaphors of the journey, the voyager and transitory spaces (like hotel rooms) to describe in-betweenness as a constant. The concepts of departure and arrival dissolve, as the transient keeps moving. The voyager's home becomes the hotel room and the airplane. Spaces to pause but never to dwell.

QUOTE ELISABETH BIONDI

“Journeys are the center of her work, and in her earlier photographs, the journeys were often literally filled with apprehension. In her recent work, Welcome Home, the apprehension is more conceptual. Stenneken draws on memories of places she’s visited (rarely tourist destinations), exploring such themes as nature in conflict with urban environments or people in transit to create moody abstractions. She frequently photographs herself in hotels, often engulfed in shadows. Impressionistic, open-ended images push against photographs that are tangible and finite, creating an evocative tension. The places in her photographs are transitory, expressing a sense of isolation and loneliness; she seems to be always passing through, never settling down. Stenneken rejects the traditional notion of home in favor of a constant sense of uncertainty; every new turn offers a space for exploration. She purposefully leaves her comfort zone, exploring the spaces in between objects and thoughts, conflicting emotions, and a perpetual state of motion. Her narratives are not linear, but rather made up of loosely connected fragments. They are visual short stories, open-ended and unfinished, receptive to meandering. Along the way, she exposes unsettling emotions. We experience her work viscerally and are left with a sense of melancholy..”

- ELISABETH BIONDI