lost ambience

Lost Ambience is a visual and auditory reflection of the year 2020. It is meant to highlight what was previously considered mundane. Growing up in a busy household, Sheila has always been engulfed with sounds and comforted by the presence that they make known. There is a specific emotion brought about by ambient sounds of familiar places that does not have a name. But the symphony of forks hitting plates and clinking glasses at dinners, the riotous sounds of the crowd and squeaking sneakers at basketball games, or even the sea of music and laughter at a bar has all been muted. The places remain, but the life that filled them seems to be lost. Lost Ambience aims to create a dichotomy between the empty spaces and the lively sounds that come from them.

As a photographer, Sheila is a visually oriented person. But when COVID-19 hit America, the world became eerily silent, and she realized the comfort of those ambient sounds were lost. These places that were normally filled with life were found empty and the warm ambience that once greeted her at the door of new places was no longer there. Sheila hopes this project can serve as a reflection of the fragility of the mundane and make people notice the smaller parts of their lives that they did not acknowledge before the pandemic. 

To view Sheila's digital exhibition of Cinemagraphs, please click on the image below.