Viewing liminal spaces often evokes strong emotions. Let’s capture that in our photography. Join us in this mini-challenge as we take new photos of these places.
Liminal spaces are transitional places, such as hallways, stairwells, and waiting rooms, that feel strangely quiet and uncanny. They are often empty or nearly empty. Stepping into one tends to stir a sense of uncertainty, sometimes leaving you wondering what’s waiting around the next corner.
Picture a doorway opening onto a plain hallway with almost no furnishings. It’s quiet, and the air feels motionless. A shadow you can’t quite identify stretches around the corner beyond a distant door. Perhaps a single broken chair leans against the right wall. The lights have an off-color. There’s nothing else in the scene except you and your camera.
Let’s rediscover local eeriness in our photos and lean into the idea of liminal spaces. Halloween is also coming in parts of the world, so it fits well into this theme.
Here’s how to participate
1 – Take a new photo anytime from now to 12:01 am PDT (7:01 am UTC) on November 1, 2026, to be included in a post-event showcase.
2 – Post your photo in the comments section of this announcement. Tell us something about the scene, along with what camera you used. Ensure the original EXIF data in the photo’s file is intact.
You can edit your photos as you normally would: raw conversion, color, tone, contrast, sharpening, noise reduction, cropping, HDR, focus stacking, and local adjustments like dodging and burning are all fine. Don’t change what’s in the scene: no adding, removing, or moving elements, and no generative AI.
That’s it! We’ll pick our favorites and publish them in a slideshow on the DPReview homepage later in the week of November 1.
What are eerie liminal spaces?
To give you another idea of what I mean by liminal spaces and the eeriness they can project, check out this movie trailer called ‘Backrooms’. It focuses on liminal spaces with a mild horror twist (don’t worry, this particular trailer doesn’t capture the few slightly darker moments of the movie):
Can your photography capture the feeling you just had watching that trailer? Let’s find out.
Drop a reply in the comments section below, and if you’ve got a photo to include of one of your cameras that looks like it might have been overengineered, it may be selected for next week’s article on this topic!
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