We are free no moreby
JudiComment by CEJ: I viewed the images numerous times and every time this image stopped me for an extended time. There are so many levels to this piece and each struck a different chord. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of excellent images in this competition. None made me think like this one. This was my journey with this image:
At first I thought of the conflict of being captured within the elements and trying to exist as you want. Elements almost surely placed there by ourselves - doubt, guilt, etc. But none of the struggle is evident in the models face or features. There is not even a hint of wanting to break out of what appears to be growing around her, keeping her in.
Looking closer, not only is there not even a hint of her wanting to break out, there really isn't a hint of anything keeping her in either. This causes me to further think the constraints are self imposed. We are never free of ourselves. It then became a matter of her expression. Is it self assured? Confident? I settled on content. It is not a smile or even a smirk or her lips. It is a look, to me, of knowing what one's own constraints are and being able to live with them and not sacrifice or cheat. "See, I can have all this hindrance and still be myself. I dare you to try!"
The smooth, almost void of any definition skin lends to the idea that any external struggle is not present - no restraint what so ever. Again, to me, this is suggesting any potential or perceived struggle is within. We trap ourselves in layers of protection of all types and even different types for different people or groups. A different view of her expression could then be that she does not know what to express to be real since everything is just another layer on or off.
I would say the image is haunting as all week it has literally haunted my thoughts.
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