Shadow Places – Six
For this commission, Amy has created a series of photographic self-portraits titled Shadow Places and accompanying creative writing/spoken text about living with complex post traumatic stress disorder.
Image Description
Landscape oriented black and white photo. An ancient tree with huge branches is being held up with metal crutches. There is mist in the background obscuring trees in the distance. Standing small next to the tree is a figure in a black robe, facing away from the camera. One hand is resting on one of the tree’s supports, one hand on a walking stick. There is a strange dreamy softness to the image.
Spoken Text
I was in my twenties when I realised other people could remember
Whole lives in their minds
Narratives laid out, neat and ordered
I smiled and pretended I wasn’t the alien
With my handful of flickering films
Turned into anecdotes to alleviate the discomfort of knowing
We could not choose to fly away
We could not choose to fight
So we trembled in our frozen smiles
Our placating voices
Until we forgot how not to be alert