Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process, we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take. In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves.
In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.
For the tenth post of the series, portraiture and documentary photographer Ameena Rojee talks about an image that she took during a surreal lockdown moment. Ameena's work explores community and culture focusing on people, places, and living, delving into our relationship with the natural world.
Ameena says: "The photograph I’ve chosen to show is a black and white photograph of a magpie flying to freedom and my mum’s hands. This photograph comes from a series of photographs I’ve taken as a lockdown-inspired study of my garden. It has largely become a space associated with relief and calm and was my only consistent source of sun and fresh air these days during the lockdown itself.
Although lockdown has been lifted, not much has changed for me; I live with my mum who is high risk and so I've been staying at home as much as possible. I’ve been forced to truly look at this space which I thought was so well-worn and each corner known to me. Instead, I’ve found unfamiliarity and magic.
Untitled © 2020 Ameena Rojee
This was one of those surreal moments; back in March, at the beginning of everything, this curious bird somehow ended up in our house one gorgeous blue-sky day and got stuck. My mum rescued the bird from our living room and set it free again.
It was such a timely real-life metaphor - a moment of struggle and panic, but with some help and kindness, the magpie was able to fly away to freedom again. It was a spontaneous moment and I’d had to run to get my camera; a reminder that sometimes our best work comes without planning, foresight or indeed any idea of what’s about to happen.
Four months on and this photograph still has so much immediate meaning. Every day I look at it and can’t help but hope for the day that we’ll all be free again."
Thank you so much, Ameena, for sharing this image and such a unique experience with me! I can almost feel that sense of regained freedom when I look at it.
You can learn more about Ameena's work on https://www.ameenarojee.co.uk/
If you haven’t read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here.
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