Laura Berger’s subjects are minimal and insouciant, humanity stripped of care, clothes, gender, inhibition. Intentionally ambiguous, sans of obvious identifiers to shed light on the visceral self. Beautifully, she offers their connections, nestling them around and on top of colorful barriers and endeavors, together, apart, interconnected by life’s inevitable hitches and the resulting experiences, proving the importance of all journeys, both personal and communal.
Would you mind speaking a bit to your own self development and discovery, and its influence on your work?
That’s most definitely an ongoing process that I hope never ends. But I did get really into yoga and studying that direction of spiritual philosophy at the end of high school/early college, and it’s stayed with me throughout life. I’m continually trying to learn more and get better at truly putting those fundamental beliefs into actual practice in real life so that they’re not just cerebral concepts.
I also lost my father in my mid-twenties and that was a big turning point in my life. He was quite young and worked his whole life at a job he didn’t really love. He had never left the country and was waiting to retire to travel, but he died at age 61. I learned in a deep way through that loss that life is entirely unpredictable, which helped light a fire for me to go after things in a more passionate way, but also has given me a lot of fear because I can get overly existential and up in my head about how fragile things are. But it did help me to understand that I should do the things I want to do now. That included travel for me—I made a vow to go to at least one new place abroad and one new place domestically every year, and I’ve managed to keep that promise to myself for ten years, so far. Those travel experiences have probably influenced my work more than anything else. I also started painting after my dad passed away. I never imagined or intended it to be my career; I was just looking for something that felt healing and positive to focus my energy on at that time.
Read our full featured interview with Laura in upcoming issue 12 out September 30th. Pre-order the issue here.
