Heaven Is Closer Than You Think is a self-published zine compiled from a selection of pictures I shot while in the Greek Cyclades last summer. I embarked on the trip with one of my most familiar subjects, my partner Evan, days after we were married. While traveling together, I set out to continue shooting pictures that embodied the ongoing themes in my work: escapism, romance, and maintaining a balance between the real and imaginary.
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The Cyclades are steeped in mysticism, from the traces of Greek mythology that seep into the culture, to the saturated emerald of the Mediterranean Sea. We began in Santorini, an island that is widely speculated to be the inspiration behind the myth of Atlantis. We continued to Milos, home to the Venus de Milo, the legendary statue depicting Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty and love.In the style of male photographers like Harry Callahan, who photographed their wives as their muses, I revealed a specific portrait of intimacy: the discovery of oneself through their partner. Using Evan, myself, and the landscape as subjects, I was capturing intimacy in its purest, most intoxicating form. By subverting the roles of subject and viewer, I was recognizing the way that how we see one another shapes the other person. I was also guided by this quote from photographer Emmet Gowin:"If you set out to make pictures about love, it can't be done. But you can make pictures, and you can be in love. In that way, people sense the authenticity of what you do."All photographs by Amy Harrity. You can follow her work here.
