Bird in a Gilded Cage
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I snapped this image in 1998 for an advanced photography course I was enrolled in while living in Tampa. One day on a whim while collaborating with friend and fellow photographer, Lori Ballard, this image came to life. We were playing dress up, posing around antiques, drinking champagne, being silly while taking photos in my home. With one press of the shutter release and some time in the darkroom, this image went on to win first place in the Annual Student Art Show.
Everyone has a story to be told and this was when I began telling mine via a camera and its unique way of transforming everyday life into MAGIC.
Please visit Lori’s website, she is an exceptional photographer and friend. Lori Ballard Photography
This image was created using my very first camera, an old Canon AE-1, a first anniversary gift from my husband. I used Kodak T-Max 100, 100TMX, Black & White Negative Film, ISO 100, which I developed and printed in a campus darkroom. The image was shot indoors in natural light next to a window, my favorite light.
The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating. ”
— Pearl S. Buck
