May at Arts on Douglas April 16 2025

BORDERLANDS
Photographs by Juliana Romnes

On Exhibit: May 3 - June 14, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 3, 4-7 PM
Artist Talk: Friday, May 16, 11 AM

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Fractured by ©Juliana Romnes

About the Exhibition

For her second alt_space exhibition at Arts on Douglas, Juliana Romnes presents Borderlands, a series of abstracted photographs of seawalls that explore the complex relationship between natural ecosystems and manmade structures in coastal areas. 

Born and raised in Volusia County, Romnes spent countless hours photographing the delicate beauty of the natural environment along the shore. Three years ago, after hurricanes Ian and Nicole left a trail of destruction, the focus of her image-making shifted from the gaze of the sea to the impact these storms had on land. 

In her artist statement, Romnes elaborates: “In the aftermath of these hurricanes, I could no longer photograph birds and tidepools with crumbling walls and collapsed swimming pools just feet away. This created a form of dissonance. Spaces I would visit to clear my mind were no longer refreshing and uplifting; they were chaotic and overwhelming. Instead of avoiding the beach altogether, I decided to process these emotions in the best way I knew how… through photography.”

Over time, Romnes shifted her focus from documenting the storm damage to the creation of visual meditations.  She explains, “By looking closer at the seawalls, I noticed a sublime beauty among the rubble. I became fascinated with the way the early morning light created dimensional shapes and enhanced certain textures, while the layers of peeling paint, cracks, and surface markings seemed to transform the walls into something novel and mysterious.”

As this body of work progressed, Romnes noticed firsthand how weather intensity, rising seas, and overdevelopment are transforming the shoreline. While her photographs present fragments of this altered landscape, they also leave room for a silver lining.  She concludes, “Seawalls signify protection, permanence, and ownership of place, constructs at odds with the natural rhythms and power of the sea. This creates friction as stronger winds and rising tides make regular contact with these structures.  While these tensions and vulnerabilities leave scars on the surfaces of these walls, there is still beauty to be found, which is what I aim to capture in these images of the borderlands between land and sea.” 

Traces by ©Juliana Romnes

About the Artist
 
Juliana Romnes has spent the past 20 years exploring her home state of Florida through the medium of photography and her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at museums and galleries in Florida, including the Lake County Museum of Art, Tavares; Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach; Nathan H. Wilson Center for the Arts at Florida State College, Jacksonville;  Butterfield Garage Gallery, St. Augustine; Snap!, Orlando; Fifth Avenue Art Gallery, Melbourne; and the Casselberry Sculpture House, among others. She attended the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies at Daytona State College and went on to receive a Bachelor of Science in Photography and a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management, both from the University of Central Florida. Romnes has also been a member of the Florida Artist Group since 2023.