Here’s a picture of someone where the story of what’s happening isn’t clear. Is this person – her name is Vy – embarking on a journey? But she doesn’t seem to be carrying anything with her. Is she leaving someone? Maybe she has followed this footpath/ bike-path into the bush in order to get some solace from nature – to escape the nearby edges of the city.
Photographer Rozalind Drummond sometimes selects her subjects – often they are friends and neighbours – because they suggest a certain emotion or state of mind (perhaps reflection, restlessness, or patience). The setting of the photograph might be chosen to align with this – or to make a poetic connection. So, as an artist, Drummond is creating the impression of a bigger story and leaving it to us to fill in the gaps.
As for me, I think that this photo looks as though Vy has received some sad news about a loved one and she has sought out some space to process it. There’s a sense of freeing airiness in the bush location – I can imagine the bird sounds, the leaves rustling.
Rozalind Drummond’s photographs in the exhibition Tough and tender let us bring our imagination to the act of looking – to conjure the delicate and uncertain emotions of sadness-joy, freedom-relief, love-regret.
