Healing

Sometimes the healing is in the aching!

Photograph by Jessica Keller

Running Towards

What are we chasing? Why do we always feel we need to hurry? What is the real deal? Where are we going? What makes us unique?

Listening to Bye Bye Macadam by Rone gave me a strong feeling of running, movement, reaching a goal, get to the final destination and be completely satisfied with life. The search is over; peace has filled your heart and you ready for whatever lies before you.

It was never an easy road, the path was filled with stones, but you have conquered them. Get over your heal and see...

We tend to forget to take a break and enjoy what is around us. We often live in the past and only think about the future. The present, what is that. The present is everything... The present is who we are.

I strongly believe that the journey is the destination...

Photograph by Jessica Keller

Symbolic elephant meaning deals primarily with strength, honour, stability and patience.

As a dream animal, elephants come into our dreams it is a message that we are able to deal with any obstacle we are faced with at this time. Elephant’s also express advanced sensitivity and social connection, especially during time of death, they travel to a specific place upon their death, fulfilling personal responsibility, even at the end of their days.

It reminds me of being in a situation where I can’t see the solution, where I have to zoom out, be still and find my path through all the obstacles.  Life is hard, but there is a solution for every mess. You never give up on taking the next step and coming closer to your destination.

Photograph by Jessica Keller

We should keep on running towards… Doesn’t matter how long it takes us to reach the final destination of complete satisfaction. We are in competition with no one. We run our own race. We have no desire to play the game of being better than anyone, in any way, shape or form. We just aim to improve, to be better than we were before. That is us and we are free…

Photograph by Jessica Keller

Torn Between Two Realities

Photograph by Jessica Keller

I had the opportunity to spend some time in the Transkei last April.

That is one of my favorite images of my Transkei trip and I would like to share my view on the image. What message I want to bring across with my picture? What it makes me feel? Why I chose to convert it into black and white?

That lady looked very tired, exhausted of doing the same thing every day and I can see sadness in her eyes. If you look at her carefully there is still a glimpse of hope and strength. She has got an eagerness to get to work and to carry on with her daily life. The white cream on her face should probably protect her from the African sun, is that the real reason? 

Living in the Transkei is not easy and hard work. Women in the community get up early and cutting grass with a penga to make some money for the family waiting at home. Life can be very hard in these little villages, most of the women are stuck with a useless husband who think it is better to drink life away. They will take all the abuse and are left with no voice to raise their issues. They will walk tall and will never give up, because they are left with no other choice. They accept and carry on. 

Was the white cream on her face really just a protection for the hot sun? Or does it give the feeling of being someone else at work? Maybe she can hide her true face and the harsh reality.

The white cream might helps to hide all the sorrows that are showing on her face. She gets a break for a couple of hours from the reality at home. I was amazed how happy she was to be working, laughing with her friends, but didn't stop for one-second cutting the grass. It almost seemed like that my camera gave her the permission to look how she really felt. She didn't need to act happy anymore, she wanted me to see that she is waiting for a break. A person can look happy, act happy, but one never knows what is truly going on inside of someone's heart. 

The colors and the patterns the cream created on her face are matching the wall in the background. She almost blends into the wall... An other symbolic meaning of wanting to hide, keeping your secret and not wanting to be seen.

I converted the image into black and white because we live in a world where everything is extreme. People often just see black or white, but I wonder where have the grays disappeared to?

Stop Motion Video

Sharing my stop motion video for a project.

Title: Confused

Song: My Moon My Man by Feist

It shows a young girl who is confused with society. People have got a unique dressing style and know exactly what they want from life. That particular girl hasn't found herself yet. She doesn't know what to wear, she has no clue who she is. In the end she is giving up without a solution. 

Has life not got more to offer than looking pretty? I doubt it sometimes especially in our society today... 

Enjoy what I have created with around 2000 images...

How And Where I Live

The last few years I was wondering how and where I live. I was asking the question over and over again where is my home and where am I the happiest. People would always tell me your home is where your heart is. Where do I belong and what is real?

I grew up in Switzerland, but left Europe with 21 and started a new adventure in South Africa.

How and where I live is very difficult to tell. I'm someone who will take every challenge, try to get as much out of a place as possible. I'm scared to call something just yet home, because as soon as I do there will be goodbyes again. Home is within me. How I live is who I'm.

I photographed existing photos through physical barriers. I photographed them underwater, covered in oil, salt or paint and in this was give commentary on negation of memory.

Photograph by Jessica Keller

Photograph by Jessica Keller

Photograph by Jessica Keller

Photograph by Jessica Keller

Photograph by Jessica Keller

The Unknown

Photograph by Jessica Keller

Sometimes our biggest downfall is that we believe the art we imagine is better than the art we will produce. This causes lack of motivation. This causes ideas to flow but never to be realized. This is fear taking over life.The biggest reason people fail is because they don’t try enough times to get it right. Failure is one of the best things we can experience. It makes success that much more worth fighting for." - Brooke Shaden

What a beautiful inspiration and so very true.

A Heart For Wildlife

In the past few days I had been reflecting on my time spent in Zambia, where I came upon a story which really made me think about the cruelty man has on nature.
We have so little space left on this planet for our wildlife that it breaks my heart when I experience cruelty at this level.

Jonathan was prepared to give me his story about a female elephant which he took care of for 4 days and experienced a hard but in a way still beautiful time...

Jonathan:" At 04:33 in the morning I heard gun shots, I can't remember where I leave my phone sometimes but remember the exact time I heard those shots, something wasn't right about the shots I heard, they were not of a poacher shooting for food but shooting under distress.

After gathering up the scouts we went trekking, trekking to find the poachers and to assess the damage done. What we found infuriated me that people,(human beings) can be so cruel, but that doesn't surprise me. We found a young female elephant in her late teens or early twenties wounded by two types of weapons, a high powered rifle and a home made shot gun.

She was shot in her face, her right side of her body and the right back leg.
The shot gun was fired twice to my count to a charging elephant protecting her 2 month old baby.
Once in her face and when she turned to run away once on her side but it didn't stop there. They went on and shot her again while she was running away in the hind leg with an even deadlier weapon a high powered rifle.

She was seriously injured an injury which would have killed her slowly through weeks of pain while infection took place.The herd ran and left her behind in all the panic and distress of such a violent attack.

When we found her the logical thing to do was to shoot her but I couldn't be certain at that time of the damage, so I got online with the vet we knew and she told me that if I could fly her in she could patch up the injuries except if the elephants bone in her back leg had been smashed by the bullet, so I needed to make sure. But how do you get close to an elephant thats just been wounded, you don't except through love. I had sat with her for 2 days bringing her food and water trying to get close enough to assess the damage without stressing her out further and then the game started.

The game was called throwing sticks, she through a stick at me probably to get rid of me but it was a gentle throw not aggressive at all and when I through it back she responded by throwing it back to me, landing perfectly in my lap, I spoke to her throughout the time we spent together and got very little sleep over the next 4 days, on the fourth day magic happened she allowed me to touch her and check her leg and when I had seen the bullet had not come out the other side, I knew it was bad but then my fears were answered once she tried to step on her leg and I heard the crunch of bone.

In the end of my time with this beautiful new mother, we had to shoot her for there was nothing else we could of done for her. My heart broke at what happened, I had known this herd of elephant well, followed them for 3 moths before the incident and to me it was like loosing a friend."

Jont and his ele!