Michelle C. Parent

This past year has been a full of changes for me. My somewhat cozy life was ripped apart when my then husband asked for a divorce. Well, things like that rock one's world on many levels. In my world, I started to find dissatisfaction in other parts of my life. I was already seeing a counselor for childhood issues and she became invaluable during this troubled time. I noticed that I talked to her about spiritual things as well as my photography. I found that I was cleaning house on the physical level with moving him out and rearranging things to cleaning my inner house out. This led to me finding my photography dissatisfying. I would go out to shoot pictures and the time out in nature was very soothing, but then I would pop the flash card in, process the photos, and feel no emotional connection to the shots. They looked like anybody could have done them, to me. I felt that I was doing that same old thing. I began to think about how I used to feel about nature as a child. I remembered how I loved fairy tales and how I thought that certain places used to look like they were part of the fairy tales and I used to imagine that there really were fairies and elves living in there and it made it more fun and magical and mysterious for me. I wanted to recapture that feeling and transmit that into my photography. I decided my photography needed to have more emotion, magic and mystery. So, I have been spending my time in the fields and woods, reconnecting to my childhood feelings of magic and mystery and hoping it is transmitting itself to my eyes and hands as they do the physical act of creating the photograph. I am still in flux, so to speak. I still feel unsure and wobbly, on my newfound legs in this new photographic endeavor I have embarked upon, but I hope to grow as it grows.