Photo editing – we are what we edit

I spent all of December at the hospital with my husband and it became my only source of subject matter, but I  took photographs to distract myself.  Now at home I have begun to view and edit them and as I do so I realize my editing choices are very much connected to my experience.  I suppose this is always true – we are, after all, the sum total of all that we experience – but this has made me realize how much of me is portrayed in my photographs, whether or not it is obvious to the viewer, whether or not they know the back story.  The challenge, and the hope, is that as photographers, professional or not (like me), our viewers feel something of what we have put into our images.

Every time I passed through the doors into his ward, I felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie, passing into another dimension where no one ever wants to go.

At times I felt disconnected from what had been our normal just a few weeks earlier.

It was frightening and surreal

Overwhelming

And disorienting

Our journey isn’t finished.  We shall both continue to feel our way as we move into new territory.

These are the original images