I’m working on two main series this year. One I will document via video but will not be sharing the final images until a gallery debut later (NYC, January 2017, wahoo!). The other, which includes this image, is all about fragility. It is a very special topic to me, since I’ve often been seen as fragile in the eyes of others and have come to believe it myself on occasion. Because of this, I’m often fighting to be seen as strong and smart and capable.

A lot of this stems from having Fibromyalgia, which I’ve detailed in other blog posts. I might have a limp one day but feel fine the next, but the only thing anyone can remember is that one time my body ached, so I must be weak. And to be honest, I am in ways. I’m not as strong as a lot of other people, I do have painful days (and weeks and months, sometimes), and so this idea of fragility plagues me. For most of December and January I was in a flare up of pain and had to walk with a cane for a lot of my outings. But, I can happily say, I’m feeling much better!

And, my cane looks like something out of a fairytale, so it’s all good!

In all seriousness, the theme of fragility has always fascinated me. I think it is beautiful in so many ways, and I’ve always loved writing about it and capturing it as well. I’ll write more about it in blog posts to come, but for now, I wanted to share this image.

I was inspired visually by the video came Limbo. It is a truly incredible visual narrative that has given me a new visual interest to explore.

As I was shooting this image, I knew I wanted a strong stream of smoke. I typically use really safe, totally harmless smoke emitters. This time I pulled out one of my 5-year-old smoke bombs from a fireworks website. I’ve used them before, and they were mostly safe, but this time…I decided to put it in a glass jar to set it off so that I could work my camera while it was going, and the result was that it trapped too much oxygen and created a giant, flaming flame. Fire was shooting into the air about a foot high. Luckily that stopped after about 10 seconds and after the sparks settled down, the smoke began pluming just as I wanted it. I got many different, fantastic shots of smoke! And thankfully I was outside for all of this, on cement, so there was no danger.

I love that photography always lets me create memorable days that turn into stories in my mind. I hope you enjoy this new image, more to come!