Public Story
Andromeda
Many years ago a mentor told me, “Photograph what you know, photograph what is close to you.” Years later, another mentor suggested that one should make photographs about what they don’t know, what they don’t understand. Parenting immerses us in both the known and the unknown. Thus, I began documenting the joys and challenges of parenting after the arrival of my first child. And, all the while, wondering what she will sacrifice to my faults, my dreams, and my hubris.
In Greek mythology, Andromeda is the daughter of the king of Ethiopia, Cepheus, and his wife Cassiopeia. In Cassiopeia’s hubris she boasts that Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, the sea nymph companions of Poseidon;Poseidon sends the sea monster Cetus to ravage the coast of Ethiopia as divine punishment. After consulting an oracleCepheus chains Andromeda to a rock as a sacrifice to satiate the monster.
I interpret this narrative as a metaphor for the intensity of the desires parents have for their children to succeed in this complex world, the lengths parents go to in pursuit of these desires, and the potential hubris that our effort might suffer from.
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