Small photographs from travels afar of scenes the normal viewer takes for granted are transformed into abstract, otherworldly places through Ratcliff’s vision and meticulous handwork.

The works in Small Worlds explore the border between photography and drawing, the mechanical and the handmade—between the objective and subjective; always with great sensitivity to framing and cropping, the use of the close-up, and photography’s potential for abstracting details from the world. The finished images show us shimmering, shaking or prismatic views multiplied by glass, rippling water, or filtered through shadow. Some are straight photos, others have been de-natured, transferred, and scrupulously re-created by hand. It is often difficult to tell which is which.