No More Pins In Me

Sometimes we just gotta put what we feel down on paper. I prefer to put it down on pixels.

The above image is the result of a few things. One of them being some personal struggles that started to manifest themselves into large mountains of frustration. Another being procrastination.

When I originally got the idea in my head for the above photo, it looked very different in my mind. In fact the only thing that remained the same was the little wooden man and the green backdrop. But since I put it off, little by little things started happening in my life that made me change the idea around. It evolved slowly into what you see up top there.

Everyone struggles with things from time to time, and we all have our own ways of coping. I'm very thankful for the abilities I've got when it comes to photography. Sometimes it's the only way I really know how to express myself and what's going on in this crazy head of mine.

I'm posting this here because I think it's something we all can relate to in one way or another. It means a few different things to me, and I'm sure everyone will have their own interpretation of it and how it relates to them personally.

Some basic symbolic elements for me (and this is the thought process of how the shot was built):

1. The green background and the very tight spotlight on the subject: It was meant to show how people's jealousy and greed (both represented by the color green) can hold you or other people down. Jealousy can be crippling, while greed can cripple other people.
2. The chains: Obviously the feeling of restraint. The chain slowly disappears into the background to show that the restraint goes on indefinitely. The idea that the subject here, or the viewer, may never completely feel free. It's a depressing thought, but I'm not Disney, I'm realistic. It symbolizes being held back, something that the previous themes of jealousy and greed also contribute to.
3. The pins: Some of us have many things going on at once that we wish we could just tear off like a band-aid. We begin to feel helpless, like a voodoo doll, just waiting around for another pin to be plunged into us. The red pin is going right into the heart and I specifically chose that one to go there, to make it stand out. Heartache is always the most standout pain, there's no medication to make that go away; no way to numb it out of your mind.
   

Every time we get used to a situation or a struggle we're stuck with another pin, while feeling helpless and held down, under the heat and pressure of outside forces which sometimes we can't stop ourselves. Even optimistic people know deep down that this happens to them.

This was just my way of summing up the way people can sometimes feel when they have more going on than they are able to cope with. Hopefully through this piece of art I can help someone understand they are not alone, and that people out there do understand what they are going through, even if we've all got our own experiences and our own levels of pain. We're all in this together, we're all blades of grass in one large field, and the field only looks good if all the blades are standing tall and bright.

More soon.
-Rob