I’ve been putting together a body of work exploring the notion of fairies. Not so much what they are, but why we may need them and what would it be like if we had it in mind to actually look. A couple of years ago, I wrote about the process of re-enchantment. I’ll be posting some more entries on the topic and new images from this series. For now, let us let the story begin…
Where the Fairies Are
There is a wonder in the world around us, a wonder that has been neglected and obscured. In the bustle of our lives, we have let that sense of wonder decay. We have become strangers with the notion of enchantment. To discover something enchanting is to take in, in a way that changes the very representation of the thing.
These photographs portray natural settings as more than what we expect them to be. They are a hope of things mystical and mysterious. If fairies existed, where would they be? They would be on the edge of a world that is breaking into ours. They would be among the miraculous that we take as mundane.
Perhaps by imagining, we can bring into existence what is already there, waiting for us to become re-enchanted.
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries”
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
