"Empathy Has No Reason To Doubt"

Photograph of my mother, Barbara, dressed in an Egyptian vintage deep blue cloth with golden embroidered detail. The photograph is deliberately over exposed in a vibrant explosion of colour. The fabric draping across her is like a relic of memory or lineage. The blue glows against the bright exposure giving her a ethereal presence. Resting on her lap is a jewelled skull catching the excess light so it appears more symbol than object. Her right hand presses against the skull gently but firmly keeping it at bay - an act that rejects finality choosing life over death, agency over surrender. Her left hand rests across her chest a natural self soothing gesture that carries the weight of tenderness, evoking protection and motherhood. It speaks of the instinct to nurture oneself and others, even in the presence of darker times. In the over exposed light, the photograph feels suspended- caught between vulnerability and power, past and present, life and the echo of death she refuses to submit to. Her empathy is presented not as a weakness, but as certainty, a force with no need to doubt itself. It speaks to all women's strength.