The Rebirth

As someone who thrives on experiencing new things, I am more often than not, comfortable with being uncomfortable.  But now and again I bump up against the dark side of something inside myself and it becomes important for me to make use of that energy somehow.

Beginnings.

This dark side is where Rebirth of Earth was born, through a kinship with a stark and barren landscape, from an unnamed angst that I believe surfaced as a result of what I see as difficult and uncertain times in this world. My personal lens had become too focused on what was wrong, instead of working to illuminate what was right and good.

And I wanted more — more than just a beautiful person, or bright colors, or a striking garment, I wanted these portraits to be an interplay between the barren and the blooming, for them to ask for more than a scroll through or a reflexive like. I wanted to freeze someone for even a moment in a place that the viewer could feel, colors that would be a conspicuous contrast to the monotone background – both grounded and given motion by Larsen Thompson. As my fiery redheaded protagonist, Larsen’s confident and effortless fusion of dance and fashion draws viewers’ focus naturally from dark to life.

Through the process my own perspective was jarred back to seeing things from a softer angle, what was on the reverse side of darkness. And in some ways this project is also a rebirth of my intention as a photographer, to embrace meaning and open the viewer to the possibilities of what we can do, what is right — a reminder that darkness is only driven out by light.