A pair of boots, worn but not worn out, with shoelaces carefully tied and placed over the wire fence at a place only the adventurous visit. It could be a metaphor for the photographer's journey.
The boots were cared for. It’s clear the wearer - the owner - loved them. Used well, the shoelaces are not its first pair. The soles, while worn, still hold promise for more work ahead.
The person who took the time to put them there also knew of their importance. The boots are placed high along the top of the fence in front of a beautiful vista.
“Here I am.Waiting, dear owner, to be seen and worn again.”
Artists begin the journey, it seems to me, filled with hope and promise. We see the nearest peak and put on our boots and start to hike.
What begins as an adventure, with a sense of certainty where we are headed, turns eventually into discovery and experience. Not known at the start is that we will get lost. More worrisome, the clarity that we had at the outset - our vision - will get lost too.
I started out my journey naively but with encouragement. Endowed with a belief, like anyone starting something new and exciting, that it will be different and, dare I say, even groundbreaking.
But with each peak summited there is in the distance another one, even higher than the one I stand on. As I descend, I quickly realize that I have lost my way to the next summit.
Often I find myself walking in circles, treading over the same path. Tiresome and discouraging, self-doubt kicks in. Is it worth the trouble to do the same thing over?
As for the those boots on the fence. It could be my muse who left them.
There it is!
My vision is alive and well and waiting for me to return. Strengthened by experience, it's ready for new challenges and new peaks to summit.
Taken exclusively with my iPhone, this collection of images is a reawakening. I am on the right path again with a new sense of freedom and creativity. Around each bend another moment waits to be found.
— Sean