bluebirds
I gave birth to twins eight years ago and although I knew it would be life changing, I really had no idea what a complex period of time this really is. My days are filled with moments of joy, stress, wonder, love, fear, humor and wistfulness. Not only do I experience a wide gamut of emotions, but they can all happen simultaneously. This series, entitled bluebirds, is a personal story about my life with my children, but it’s also a universal story about this peculiar, complex and beautiful time in life.
These images tell a narrative – a universal story of childhood. They tell the story of this remarkable time in life. The images illustrate the sweet, the profound and the peculiar – moments that are sometimes sensitive, sometimes odd, sometimes humorous, but always filled with love and appreciation. Each image can be taken at face value - the moments illustrated are unremarkable, just snippets from our daily lives. However, they are more complex than everyday depictions, as there is a deeper story embedded. They somehow embody a child’s world, a parent’s feelings and everything in between. I believe the images transcend the everyday to tell an evocative, universal story of this time in our lives, as a scrapbook of light, color, love, humor, telling moments, meaningful gestures and metaphor. There is beauty and poignancy in the complexity of it all. This stew of all things childhood is the essence of this body of work.
This series is an exploration into the world of childhood and I would love for viewers to see the images and relate to them - either as a memory of a simple snippet from their own world or a stirring of deeper emotion in what this time in our lives means to us. However, as a mom and a photographer, this work has also given me some power; choosing what images to capture and determining how I do that, allows me to slow the pace of our lives and gives me some control over something that is essentially uncontrollable – the passage of time.
More of bluebirds can be seen at http://www.jenfrasephotography.com/bluebirds/