The Garden of Eden is interpreted to be many things: the birthplace of human suffering, the first recorded provocation of human curiosity, the origin of the male species’ Adam’s Apple.
For the final project for my Fictive Photography class, I worked with a group on the concept of the Garden of Eden. We each chose an aspect, time, and place of the Garden to reflect in our photographs. To some of us, it is a place of paradise and bliss. To others, it is a place of conflict and decision-making. While creating and combining our images, we took note of the aspects of spirituality and how others understand it. There is a constant battle between right and wrong and trusting in what you cannot see.
Our subjects offer a variety of perspectives. We interrogated questions such as, who lives in the Garden of Eden and what would they imagine such a place to look like? What are their temptations? What are the dangers they are ignorant of, and what does that landscape look like? Is their Garden of Eden isolation or community?
My contribution is titled ‘Woman Alone’. What does a woman’s paradise look like when undisturbed by maternal duties or domestic expectations?
I hope that viewers understand the intersections of the human condition and that we continue to investigate the afflictions within ourselves.
What is your Eden? And what has stolen your faith or innocence?
No demands. No watching eyes. It is only her thoughts and what she wishes to do with them.
I think she is content and pondering.
In the material world, women are conditioned to believe that in their life time they are destined to find ‘the one.’ A soulmate, their other half. A husband or one true mate. A masculinity to our femininity.
In a Disney Princess-like and binary fashion, every encounter with a man is potential for marriage and should it not end that way, something is wrong with her.
But in truth, we are all dual spirits with a Yin and Yang, a masculine and feminine. Those we find who seem to ‘fit’ or ‘click’ with our personalities are complimentary, but they do not complete us. We are already whole. In this Eden, the woman is charming to herself, charmed by the environment and its fruits, and requires nothing more.
I think she is self-sufficient.
She is still and strong like the trees. Whatever she desires she can nurture and harvest. Should she choose to abandon the soil, her roots are not tangled in the dirt, but retreat to her heart. She is nomadic and kind to every seed beneath the soles of her feet.
