It is no secret that my daughter is my favourite muse as far as photography is concerned. I may not be a portraitist nor have the formal training for portraiture, but these are details that are of no concern to me at the moment. The main thing is to draw out the soul and emotions without crossing the threshold into fantasy and delusion. I loved photographing her as a baby, a toddler, a teenager with an assortment of hair colours, and even more so now as a woman. Her growth as an artist is parallel to mine as a writer and photographer, full of twists and turn, mistakes and failures, self-doubt, self -harm, and often times feeling overwhelmed by life. But the beauty of this journey is that we have always had each other to hold on to, through the best of times and the darkest of nights.
She flew to Berlin to seek refuge from the dreaded corona virus outbreak in Florence, so I have the wonderful opportunity to photograph her again, and I am not disappointed. The time together is perfect for both of us in order to cope with the uncertainty of the whole corona virus issue. Most of the universities in Italy have sent all the international students home, the local resident students are allowed to remain home on a self-quarantine basis, and the off-shore campuses of international universities have closed down. Nobody knows how the situation will unravel next, between the media hype and conflicting reports, throw in panic buying and out of context photos that have gone viral on the internet, you have chaos. Not an epidemic, but pure and utter chaos.
Just when some thought there might be a chance for students to return to universities this week or next, Italy´s latest press release (as echoed by all news agencies worldwide) announced that the government is considering closing down all schools and universities for an undetermined period. OK, so now what?
Here in Germany, like many other countries around the world, the panic has hit the ground running, with pharmacies, drugstores and supermarkets running out of supplies, events being cancelled, sales plummeting and don´t even bother to ask for restocking of masks and hand sanitizing gel! I would not want to trade places with anyone working in the insurance, security, or healthcare branch at the moment. Everyone is on full alert and the most insane places to work at the moment are airports, train stations, clinics and hospitals.
Idleness is the devil´s playground, so with all this bonus time on our hands we decided to up our photography game and embark on some experimental paths that celebrate empowerment, survival, and womanhood. After all, International Women´s Day is just around the corner!
Click HERE for the complete series of #EachforEqual in FrogDiva Photography
FrogDiva Thoughts 