Here’s a bit of background behind the story of ‘A Lovely Tale‘ and where the idea and inspiration sort of came from.
When I was little we lived in a beautiful Victorian house, it was basically like a giant dollhouse. I suppose it is every little girl’s dream to grow up in an overgrown pink abode with blue shutters and an endless forest, and we briefly lived that fantasy out.
Though, I remember a few days before we were slated to move clear across the country, it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t have any photos of the house. When you’re eight, the urgency of this seems massively impressive, like once we moved the house would cease to exist entirely – be sucked into some abyss of nothingness.
I was not okay with this.
My reaction at the time, not having access to a camera of my own, was to break out some pencils and paper and camp out on the driveway while feverishly attempting to draw the house in all its glory. You see, it wasn’t even about the house; it was about the memories and the essence of being there. And I felt the need to create some form of imagery in order to remember and preserve it ‘properly’.
Fade to black and fast-forward a bit over a decade, and there I am again, trying to explain this house that we lived in. I felt like my words couldn’t do it justice, so I once again found the nearest pen and scrap of paper and recreated it the only way I knew how. It’s funny how in that moment of recreation, the details weren’t important, but the story and feeling was.
We may remember with certain detail but we retell with imagination. Slowly, that imagination becomes our reality. What if we had photographs to reflect this imaginative reality?
A Lovely Tale is built on this premise and the story inspired from growing up with the backdrop of the aforementioned house.
Stay tuned for a post about the technical side of the process and how these memories are becoming photographic reality!
