Can a picture embody and reflect back what the person who took it was thinking and feeling? That was the question in my mind when I began this project. The idea was stirred after a road trip from Boston to St. Louis, where I left my partner for six months while she completed her last clinical rotation. It was the same thought lingering in the background a month later, haunting me as I drove down an empty highway in southern Illinois, searching for something I couldn’t quite grasp.
I was longing for something different, something more. Looking around but not finding any answers or clarity. The next phase of this life together was uncertain. We would meet up in different cities to explore and discover. We drifted from place to place, trying each on for size. But the trips were too short. The time slipped by and all that remained was the emptiness in between.
Driving through those empty places allowed me to step back and assess where I was at. Time stretched out like the long road before me and I retreated into my mind to let the gears turn. I sought some truth within myself about what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be. I grappled with the fear of being powerless in shaping the course of my life. Our life.
Through my camera, I projected longingly onto this space in between. Seeking solace in the landscape. Asking it to mean something. A reflection was all it could offer.
