Ladder Years

Through my daughter’s eyes

As I climb

These ladder years

A numb uncertainty

With veiled hope

Peers from the middle rung.

Fragile, I stand alone.

My roots deep in the sanctuary of  warm earth

and yet, as yet

No petals unfold

To greet the sun.

I remain within

And I remain without

Subdued,

yet compelled

To leave the depths

And take the next unclear step.

This series of photographs show my daughter Florence navigating her way through the turbulent teenage years. Showing her dreamy, eccentric and unique nature, the images work as a memory bank of her changing exterior exposing a stillness, an intensity mirroring my own complexities. Florence did not talk until she was four years old and now, tri-lingual, chooses words delicately and carefully. The images evoke the wordless Florence.

 Her love of nature led me to make images that protected her with its glory and gently probing tendrils. Through the saftey curtain of this fecund  environment she peers at what can often seem a hostile world.

Hidden, fragile, foreign; frightened, thoughtful, courageous, her love for, and her desire to be inside nature prompted these photographs which I took over the course of 4 years. Florence looks at the world differently revealing a sensitivity, a humility and a profundity. Playful and majestic this series has found some beauty within the demons that appear during these tempestuous years that is adolescence.

Jayne Morley 2015