when i first looked at this evocative series of photographs by marwane pallas, which i consider to be his foremost work, i was naturally at first reminded of golding’s lord of the flies; but the tender sensuality of pallas’ photographs however subdued some of that familiar rage and replaced it with a focus on longing and displaced affection. this traditionalist depiction of male behavior often reveals not only the savage but also the poetic. it is this poetry which becomes the victor in pallas’ work, alluding to the more romantic notions of masculinity and spirituality. the artist features in the images himself, but instead of becoming purely autobiographical, it diffuses into a dawn lit forest landscape filled with ironic narrative and introverted disillusionment populated with himself. the viewfinder-style increases the voyeuristic element and although there are instances where the subject looks back at the viewer, the contents of the image remains at an awkward distance. this painstaking styling pays off to create a imaginarium of sensitivity and once again highlights the search for identity that is such a necessary part of us all…