…all the same. You & I
Recently on the set of The Flame Wars (a feature film I was shooting some stills for) I met a young girl Sarah, an acting extra, who at the tender age of 19 had lived such a tumultuous life that, in few words, I got the gravity of it. For most of the day she sat to the side and quietly watched. She had sad but soulful eyes—a resonant presence so solid that at the same time could also make her invisible. Sarah doesn’t attract attention to herself, she sits equanimous and only talks when spoken to…and even then she dims the lights. —you’d never know just how much this girl had lived and suffered, and how right there, staring out at you, is a raw and tender grief…Naturally, I turned my lens to her— Fostered at eleven years of age, for a while there she moved from house to […]
How do you bliss…
Two days ago I had the fireplace roaring. January in Melbourne. It’s true. But I live in the mountains and it’s an average 4-6 degrees cooler just 3kms from the bottom of the hill to where I live. Despite this, it has been cold. Well below 20 degrees for so many days. It’s been more than a week of completing projects, working into the night, quoting on new jobs and trying to keep warm. Today I opened the backdoor and couldn’t believe the stroke of warm air that kissed my face like a full-lipped mouth from someone much-loved, expected but so long overdue that it shocked me. And the sweet buzz of insects at play in my ear—like that someone said, ‘I love you, I’ve missed you’ over and over. I gasped. ‘Really. You’re here…Well come on then!’ Out in my slightly overgrown yard I spotted butterflies dancing between the […]