In Solitude We Trust – A series of companionable images
How do we relate to solitude? What is society’s attitude towards this stoic, sensitive, soul-searching condition?
As an only child of divorced parents, solitude enveloped me from a young age. I understood that I would and could be alone. That it did not have to be strange or alienating. As such, I grew up spending plenty of time by myself. That also meant doing things that did not require companionship.
In this overbearing age of connectivity, the pleasure of one’s own company is often understated. What do we see, hear, touch, think, feel, smell, and even taste, when we do not have someone else’s perception to influence our own?
“In Solitude We Trust” aims to capture on photographic film that elusive, but not exclusive, quality of solitude. It is not just the cliché of a single individual sitting on a beach watching a sunset, or meditating on a mountain top. Solitude is more than an emotion or a thought, but it also encapsulates a mood. The subjects I capture will not only be of humans. It could be of inanimate objects, or animals, insects, or even parts of animate creatures…
Not everyone experiences solitude in the same way, all the time. Sometimes, it can be frightening, other times reassuring. It can offer comfort to some, while turn others into quivering wrecks. But what would we become if we did not allow ourselves solitude’s embrace, question mark…period?
I want this series of photographs to speak to viewers on mental and emotional levels: to evoke a sensibility; questions; a monologue; an attempt at answers; a shiver; an ‘a-ha’ moment; a nod; a smile; calm, if even amidst a storm.