Symbols and monologue

Hello everyone! I know I'm writing this blog entry awfully late but I've been rather busy with schoolwork and whatnot. I'm just going to have to say I'm super stoked about seeing you guys again as early as tomorrow! It all just seems so surreal, haha.

Anyhow, here are some of the photographs I took during the first of the two project weeks. I'm also going to tell a little bit about every piece. Here's hoping I won't bore you all to death! 

I call this one Unrequited. The photograph as a whole represents one-sided love. The roses symbolize a lover reaching their petals towards the water that would revive them. Here, the water is a metaphor for the affection the roses crave. The vase is full of water, but the roses only get access to just a small amount, just enough to get them by. I used this to highlight a lover's desperation.

This picture, on the other hand, does not have such a deep hidden meaning to it. I just really, really, really liked how beautifully I was able to capture the flowing water. Praise here is due to my little brother who helped me out by pouring water out of a vase in our backyard. You can only imagine how many blurry or just otherwise unsuccessful photos we had to take before we got this one.

Finally, my personal favourite out of the photos I took during the week. The two images form a diptych, an artwork consisting of two separate pictures that, when put together, form a story or a symbolic meaning of kinds. I call this particular diptych by the name Hardship, recovery.

In both pictures, the flowers represent a person. In the first picture, the water falling on the flowers symbolizes the hard, emotionally draining times in life. In a way, I see the flowers as a reflection of myself. I immediately associated the water with my past, and my struggles with eating disorders to be specific. You can see how the water makes the flowers bend, which symbolizes how hardship really makes one change as a person.

In the second picture the hard times are over. Here, the flowers thrive even livelier than before. As was the case with myself, being weak and vulnerable can make a person so much stronger. Recovering from a mental illness such as an eating disorder doesn't only make you happier. Recovery has a way of equipping people with strength, confidence and wisdom. Sometimes we need to break in order to become complete.

Eikä ne oo kyyneleitä, joita vuori vuodattaa - 

ne on kevään tekeleitä, kun se jäitä sulattaa.

-Ossi Laurila