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Shadow Self Portrait

shadow

This is the first picture taken of me as a 40 year old.  I had just turned my back on my birthday sunrise and was headed home.

But what about me? I thought.  Where am I in all of this? I asked my camera.

Sure there are selfies these days, but I chose a classic shadow shot like the one I clicked in the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico when I was the only human for miles and miles in the middle of frost-crusted gypsum crystals, back before phones went and got smart.

Like selfies shadow shots are all about the angle.  With my back to the light, I grew like a giant.  My resting bag became a club foot.  My image overlaid the footprints of strangers who had come and gone to the beach the day before.

How marvelous to catch a shadow and make it behave— that constant companion, wily but forgettable, permanent and transient, always dodging me or stepping in my path, the shape that is me and not-me according to the distortion of the sun.  In a split second I became windswept sea grass, trampled sand, and the darkness which defines the direction of light.

 

 

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Welcome!

Hi there and welcome to Mamaguru! My name is Rebecca Cofiño and I created Mamaguru to help people live happier lives by living deliberately. It’s so easy to get caught in the hustle and bustle of busyness, and to feel like we never get the chance to live the life we really want.  As a working ...

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