"Red Dirt Road" People's Choice Award SlowExposures 2014
"We snuggle close in the dark & I breathe deep the scent of boy. It doesn't happen often these days that he wakes in the night and climbs into bed with us. It's a sweet gift when he does."
Living in the South comes with a generous helping of storytelling. Trouble is, it's hard to say whether we live the story that we tell, or tell the story we live. One is not necessarily the same as the other.
For 14 years now I have used the camera to process the enormity of the story I live. It's daunting, and inevitable, and beautiful, and out of control, and it doesn't come naturally to me, this jaunt called Motherhood - but I love it. It was scary at first, so I collected images like specimens along the way looking for proof that along with harsh reality there was beauty.
And redemption.
"I breathe deep again the scent of boy, close my eyes, hold him tight. I know that catch is always followed by release."
These days fear has given way to freedom and Motherhood has become a comfortably rumpled companion. I am free now to embrace, experience, create the story. The images, those fleeting moments, they've evolved over the years, from looking, to seeing, to revealing; and I from tightly clenched fists to upturned palms.
I look for specific, yet universal Boy-Moments. The relationships they build, the messes they make, the games they play, the ways they grow, the stillness, the chaos, and the ways they move through the spaces they occupy - these moments are fleeting yet they anchor me. They bear witness; they become not the story of me, but my story.
Trouble is, I have yet to figure out if I live the story the images tell, or if they tell a story that I then live.
