Escape
Shortly after Briley, Samantha and I made the images for The Hope Project (previously featured in this venue) inspiration for another story tableau came to me. A couple visits to local antique malls yielded suitable props for the shoot. Briley and I spent an afternoon making the images and I began doing edits to them. Editing was a difficult task. Lighting conditions were constantly changing that afternoon from bright sun to heavy cloudy shade, back and forth several times. Matching exposure, contrast and color tone across the story board of images to give a common feel, left me with less hair than I began with.
The story, told in abstraction, is about a young woman trapped and bored in a familiar, melancholy world yearning for and eventually gaining the confidence to venture out and find purpose by exploring a broader horizon. I had intended to periodically make additional images to carry the narrative to definitive locations and ends, but occasion never presented itself to do so. I left it cloaked in limbo, sitting in the lightroom catalog until I realized just a few days ago it may have some temporal relevance for all of us these days.
Most photographers have lost the ability to practice their craft unhindered by the Covid 19 pandemic. Perhaps photographers who travel have been affected the most by the situation. While I have managed to keep shooting, using vacant streets as my backdrop, trips planned for spring and early summer have been scrapped. I suspect we all are feeling a little trapped and isolated from pursuing that which inspires us. I imagine many of us have used this chance to advance our craft and passion in different ways. This site is one such product of this opportunity borne from solitude. Completing the Escape story is another outcome. I hope you find some hope in knowing that a regular normal will return and we will be better photographers for time we have invested in our craft or in a greater appreciation of the amazing freedom we have to use our cameras to tell the story of life itself.