In NOT AN EXIT, Austin Irving transforms everyday doorways, corridors, and stairwells into surreal meditations on space and perception. Shot with a 4x5 Toyo Field camera on analog film, the series denies the very function of passage, presenting exits that go nowhere and hallways that collapse into themselves.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the way ordinary spaces can feel extraordinary,” Austin says. “A hallway or an exit door may appear functional, but sometimes, when seen through the lens, they become metaphors—suggesting absurdity, confinement, or even the surreal.”
Her photographs span Singapore, India, Austria, China, Greece, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, and the United States, yet they speak a universal language. In each frame, architecture becomes both familiar and unsettling, drawing the viewer into an in-between world that resists resolution.
Austin cites Hugh Ferriss to underline her approach: “The character of the architectural forms and spaces which all people habitually encounter are powerful agencies in determining the nature of their thoughts, their emotions and their actions, however unconscious of this they may be.” In her hands, these liminal spaces take on psychological weight, inviting us to reconsider the built environment as a theater of containment, humor, and quiet strangeness.
Beyond this series, Austin’s practice extends across photography, sculpture, and installation, with work exhibited internationally and published in outlets including The New York Times, Vice, and Architectural Digest. At the core of it all is her devotion to analog processes and her pursuit of portals and passages — not just literal thresholds, but symbolic ones that mark the spaces we all move through.
All of my images are shot on location on 4x5 color negative film with a Toyo Field camera.
Website: www.austinirving.com and IG is: @austin.irving.
