How do we make sense of the unknown, which makes us anxious? We manage it by imposing on the unknown what we already know, thus treating the unknown as if we already know it. The familiar gives us a context and locates us in the unfamiliar, and we instinctively look for it in our attempts to rid of the anxiety that is provoked in us.



The wish to enter the unknown is related to our desire. Desire involves a dialectic between desiring and being desired, in photographic terms, to see and to be seen, a dialectic that includes one between oneself and the other. To achieve one's desire is to enter the place that frightens us. It demands that we are willing to lose what supports us (the familiar), to confront our own death and dissolution, as it were. The pursuit of desire, to enter the unknown, however frightening it is, requires that we are willing to suffer the fear, anguish and guilt that come with it.