This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,--
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!
by Emily Dickinson

this is the first image in the series I've completed for my Photo II final. The following 14 images are based around my poetry. I've been searching for a long time to find a way to express my poems to the degree I feel they need to be expressed. Since my love for photography far exceeds my love for writing I decided to combine the work and take the two things I feel I'm good at and make them one.

I pull a lot of inspiration from my past, as these poems are from the last several years of turmoil, pain and confusion up to the present struggle and empowerment. I also find inspiration for the photography aspect from the people I work closest with and learn the most from in the darkroom at my college, Jeff and Veronica.

The scratching manipulations I did to the negatives were an attempt to achieve a movie like quality to the series. I wanted them to have unifying details that followed throughout all the images to tie the story together. I wanted them worn and tattered to express how my past makes me feel and how I also try to view it, a day gone by that only remains in fragmented memory.

This series is essentially a self-portrait. It's about who I was and who I am. But i hope the viewer can find a small piece of themselves in each poem or image.

Enjoy.