“Lara Atallah’s series 34.5531° N, 18.0480° E consists of Polaroids made along the Southern European and Western Asian coastlines, along with sun prints made from pebbles and small rocks, culled from the different beaches that were photographed. Bordered by over 20 countries, the Mediterranean is commonly perceived as a place for recreation and leisure, but the sea has become the only viable route to safer shores for the many refugees fleeing war zones. The Polaroids are all deliberately damaged within the first 30 seconds of their development, crushed between the artist’s hands or under her feet. The images themselves are devoid of any human depiction. Instead they infer a subtle violence in the emulsion’s veins and fissures. The sun prints are weighted for a period of time by pieces of the same landscape, but only the earth’s specter remains within the prints. Both the Polaroids and the sun prints attempt to capture the earthly materiality of a contentious political boundary, as well as the impressions from where they came into contact with light and the human body.”