Making Connections with Photography: No 2

How we choose to view our lives can make an enormous difference. Sally, used the camera lens to view hers.  At nine years of age she was robbed of her childhood when targeted by her abuser.  Instead of going off the rails she buried herself in photography. Her camera became both friend and confidante. Years later it would help her to examine  her painful past. A powerful story which moved me to tears.

Piper Milton

Each of Sally’s images holds power and meaning, giving us a window on her life and showing how she connected her past to her present with photography. The personal tale behind Sally’s photography makes this a rich and emotional journey for the reader, showing how the author has been able to come to terms with past traumas, regain control and move forward. Most of us may have aspects of their life, which they’d rather forget or wish hadn’t happened and I admire Sally’s courage in facing her own ‘demons’ in such a fascinating and positive way. This is a skilfully crafted autobiographical book that shares Sally’s journey of recovery.

Sally’s poignant text has also certainly made me think more about what I see when looking through a lens and why I am choosing to capture that moment. ‘Making Connections’ also encourages us to look beyond what is immediately obvious in a photograph and question what the photographer might have been thinking - why then, why there and why that? Does a photograph record only one moment in time?

Kathy Chantler