Greg Klassen's photography exhibition 'In-Between' at the Saint John Arts Centre examines places where boundaries dissolve.

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Angie Kippers

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It was a difference in perception.

1 of 5

Works from In-Between, an exhibition by Greg Klassen at the Saint John Arts Centre.

It's spooky, she would say.

It's serene, peaceful, he would think.

When Greg Klassen went on walks with his daughter Morgan, 11, often to historic or abandoned sites, he was intrigued by the disparity of their reactions.

He thought, "Hold on a second, this is interesting. There is something there," he said from his home in Pollett River, near Petitcodiac, Wednesday.

He questioned how these altered perceptions could be represented through photography, a hobby that took prominence in his life last year after he took a course on the subject at New Brunswick College Craft and Design in Fredericton.

He came up with the idea of layers, of representing these emotions through multiple exposures.

The result was Liminal Spaces, his first solo exhibition, at The Gallery at NBCCD in April. From there, "it just exploded," he said, leading to a group show at Gallery RFD in Swainsboro, Ga., in the summer. In-Between, his solo show in the Library Gallery of the Saint John Arts Centre, opened Friday.

In-Between further examines liminality, a transitional space where boundaries dissolve. The works feature Morgan, who was nine when the series began, as model, superimposed in abandoned, often decrepit, dirtied spaces. There is broken glass, wayward wiring, peeling paint and graffiti-marked walls.

"I feel such structures - no longer participating in our everyday 'reality,' existing in parallel with contemporary culture - provide a kind of liminal environment, a transition point between the 'here' (both physical and metaphysical) and some other level of consciousness," Klassen wrote in his artist's statement.

"We kind of think of (these places) as peripheral spaces, abandoned or put aside ... I wanted to reverse this process."

In his photography, the spaces appear sharp and crisp, while Morgan is often blurred, almost ghost-like.

In one work, her upper thighs seems to vanish, the background showing through. In another, only her head appears, almost doll-like, in a corner.

In a scene from a bathroom, Morgan's annoyed expression is clearly reflected in the mirror above the sink.

Among the sites Klassen has chosen for sets are York Redoubt, overlooking Halifax Harbour, and Fort Beauséjour and Fort Cumberland, a national historic site at the New Brunswick-Nova Scotia border.

Saint John residents may recognize the abandoned ruins at Fort Dufferin near Partridge Island.

All of the images in the show are multi-exposures, comprising two to five images that Klassen incorporated with the software program Photoshop.

Viewers often have widely different reactions to his works. This is what Klassen wants.

He purposefully only numbered, rather than titled, the works in the show to prevent any preconceptions.

"It needs to be ambiguous to some extent," he said. "Everyone will take away something different. You kind of want to lose control."

In-Between is at the Saint John Arts Centre until Dec. 31.

Angie Kippers is copy editor of Salon. She can be reached at kippers.angie@telegraphjournal.com.