Autobiography of Frustration, Conviction, & Reconciliation (2019)
“For this autobiographical piece, I created a triptych representing some of the emotions felt while trying to discover my passion and place in the world. While it is understood that this is not a traditional autobiography, I feel that these images tell far more than the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” suggests.
The work depicts only hand activity over a field of black. The photographs, individually titled Frustration, Conviction, and Reconciliation, show hands holding a clenched fist, bearing wrists for shackling, and bearing a camera. Hands are an appendage that most people have and can identify with. Also, the life of someone can be interpreted through their hands, as one can infer that a coal miner’s hands likely vary drastically from the hands of a medical doctor. Also, palms are often believed to be interpreted by psychics and mediums to determine one’s future. The intention of including my own hands covered in mud is meant to suggest the labor required to place myself in a favorable lifestyle, whether it be through physical labor to earn money or mental labor to escape mental obstructions. This varies from traditional autobiographies in that it does not tell a narrative as the telling of events, but rather a telling of emotions that resonate with the viewer in a way that they can also identify with.
The first image, titled Frustration, depicts two hands. One hand is clenched in a fist, while the other cradles it. The fist represents the anger and frustrations dealt with while trying to realize one’s place in the world. The cradling hand is meant to represent God and my family, who I believe to have carried me through times when I felt I could not walk on my own and their ability to help me tame my frustrations. As a whole, this image represents my life from childhood to about the age of seventeen, when I graduated high school. I believed that I wanted to be a firefighter at the time, but as I started, I realized the EMS portion of the job bore a heavy emotional weight. It was something that ended up causing me to leave the field entirely. Feeling like a failure among other things, I fell into a deep depression. God and my family are what I believe to have helped me throughout those times.
The second image, titled Conviction, depicts two hands bearing their wrists to be shackled and represents the attempt of letting go of the frustrations mentioned earlier. This was a major turning point in my life. This was when I decided to make the jump to the arts, something I worried my family would not approve of, especially moving from something that they were so proud of. In addition, the showing of palms is to represent the future. The fact that they are covered in mud represents uncertainty.
The third image, titled Reconciliation, depicts hands holding on to a camera. One thumb rests on the shutter release, while the other hand rests on the lens. This image represents finding my passion in photography and art. This moment was pivotal in forming the man I am today. Without it, I feel I would still be in a pit of despair longing for a reason to live. In addition, the camera is also turned to the viewer, immersing them in the emotive and vague narrative and forcing them to not only become part of the existing narrative, but to become the not-yet-taken imaginary photograph that would become the fourth in the sequence, should it continue.
As a whole, this piece does not tell my story as words, but rather as emotions that anybody may identify with. While it is about me in a literal sense, it is also about anybody that can feel it as well. I just want somebody to view my work and feel what I felt and not just know, but also understand and identify with my emotions. Isn’t that what art is, anyhow? Is that not why we create?”
- Dane Allan H. Newton
Photographer, Designer, & Founder
Dane Newton Photography & Design
