Childhood Dreams

 Focus - 3/11/12

 Fairy God Mother's Tree - 3/11/12

 Jack and the Beanstalk - 3/11/12

 Forbidden Forest - 3/11/12

 Maleficent's Maze - 3/11/12

Tangled - 3/11/12

- Home -

Over spring break we were asked to go out on our own adventure to photograph the nature we are more used to seeing or wherever we ended up. I was very interested in this idea because I love comparing eastern and western Pennsylvania. Since I grew up in eastern PA, it has always held a special place in my heart as my home but as a child, I was lucky enough to call western PA my home as well. My parents grew up in Waynesburg, Pa and we traveled along the turnpike my whole life.

I wanted this chance to show the beauty of the east and I planned to go to parks like Valley Forge and Daniel Boone Homestead. Show the cabins stuck in the middle rather than the mountainside of western PA.

I unfortunately was running all over the place during spring break with family and friends and never made it to either park… Instead of not turning anything in, I decided to truly show my home and where my imagination was given the chance to run wild. So these images represent the childhood I remember very fondly.

The first three images are of the same Maple tree that has been in my front yard ever since I can remember. As a child I would run and play around that tree and even try to climb it a few times. I used to say my grandmother lived inside the tree and she was my own fairy godmother whenever I needed her. I never met my grandmother because she passed away months before I was born but I still got to play with her in my imagination as a child with that tree.

These memories of my home really tie into my initial idea of finding Disney and fantasy within the nature around us. As a child it is so easy to say, “yes my grandmother is living in the tree in the front yard”. That’s not such an easy statement as an adult but if it weren’t for imagination I wouldn’t be where I am. These childhood memories I will always hold onto because on the inside I am Peter Pan and I will never truly grow up. These images trigger that idea of fantasy and dreams.