honorable mention
Melissa Spiccia united kingdom
title
Between Thighs And The Doorway
A total of 31 images in the series. Created February 2019.
Please find below a short story / text that I wrote for Between Thighs And The Doorway.
“Every inch of this place is them bodies”. She tells me.
“Taken to pieces, they wait here. Can’t go back to their old stories. But can’t leave”.
One eye hangs low on her cheek, shifts its focus to the floor.
Stroking the cat cradled between her thighs I watch as she silently stuffs it inwards.
Dawn lifts up the dirt and drags the sun above the horizon.
The woman, now anxiously collects her limbs and folds them neatly into her hair, reminding me repeatedly she isn’t one of them.
I watch.
The way they go, circles them back.
Leaving, with one arm clinging on.
There by the doorway something unnameable stands. We can’t see it. But we know it’s there.
It’s what makes the walls creak against gravity and my chest ache.
Hidden, between time.
I take my camera out and try and take a shot but the shame on her face reflects back at me.
It takes my head off.
Slithers across the floor, behind half a woman, half a lie.
The body, I believe has its own voice with a refusal to forget and in my photography I work with it as a malleable and intuitive tool.
I began my training as a dancer in Australia and France prior to starting my career as a professional Ballerina in Germany and later after completing a BA (hons) degree at the Trinity Laban Centre in London worked as a Contemporary Dance Artist. In late 2015 I made the conscious decision to shift away from performing and into photography.
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entry description
Between Thighs And The Doorway is a personal project that looks at our resistance to change and how we can cage ourselves in through fear, guilt or a false sense of security. We know a decision must be made to grow but the consequences a great. The facts are missing. Missing because they can only be known through the experience itself.A total of 31 images in the series. Created February 2019.
Please find below a short story / text that I wrote for Between Thighs And The Doorway.
“Every inch of this place is them bodies”. She tells me.
“Taken to pieces, they wait here. Can’t go back to their old stories. But can’t leave”.
One eye hangs low on her cheek, shifts its focus to the floor.
Stroking the cat cradled between her thighs I watch as she silently stuffs it inwards.
Dawn lifts up the dirt and drags the sun above the horizon.
The woman, now anxiously collects her limbs and folds them neatly into her hair, reminding me repeatedly she isn’t one of them.
I watch.
The way they go, circles them back.
Leaving, with one arm clinging on.
There by the doorway something unnameable stands. We can’t see it. But we know it’s there.
It’s what makes the walls creak against gravity and my chest ache.
Hidden, between time.
I take my camera out and try and take a shot but the shame on her face reflects back at me.
It takes my head off.
Slithers across the floor, behind half a woman, half a lie.
about the photographer
I’ll I photograph bodies. My body and other bodies.The body, I believe has its own voice with a refusal to forget and in my photography I work with it as a malleable and intuitive tool.
I began my training as a dancer in Australia and France prior to starting my career as a professional Ballerina in Germany and later after completing a BA (hons) degree at the Trinity Laban Centre in London worked as a Contemporary Dance Artist. In late 2015 I made the conscious decision to shift away from performing and into photography.
back to gallery
