Trying out some new techniques. Without a model, I have to do my best as a stand in. This is kind of semi autobiographical stuff anyway.
In a particularly difficult season of depression, photography and time spent with bare feet in nature, especially water was one of the tools I used to cope.
Just forcing myself to get out of my head and using the camera to do that was, in a way, a therapeutic tool.
Like excercise, at times creating is hard. You don't want to do it, you have to make yourself do it, but you feel better after you do.
And, like exercise, photography provides a kind of release. When I've made what I think is a good picture, I can feel it, and everything else momentarily falls away.
I'm drawn to light, and the feeling of peace I find underwater.
Photography has given me those tough moments back... now I can see them in a different light.
Taking photos is one thing, but the decision to share my experience with my trauma is something I question all the time. The importance of breaking a stigma has won out.
One of the most powerful forms of revolution is to speak words you hold heavily in your throat. It's to give birth to your voice; at the cost of being loved by another. So that you can love yourself.
