Huckleberry

‘Huckleberry’ is a collection of self-portraits born out of a strange and confusing new chapter of my life. I was finished university, stuck in quarantine, utterly lost on what to make of my future and the current state of the world. I felt like the world was full of boundless opportunities, but I didn’t know where to go and had nowhere to be. The sense of limitlessness and potential was the very thing that terrified me from even taking a step.

This series is influenced by Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar,” specifically the metaphor of the fig tree and its presentation of feeling paralyzed with indecision.

These portraits illuminate the sense of inadequacy and insecurity for who I was, and the fear of not becoming who I wanted to be. What do I project onto the world, and into myself? Are the dreams, passion, and ambitions I hold closely to my heart nourishing, or fatal? What was I really hiding behind? Who am I stripped away of everything I project to myself and the world?

In its essence, ‘Huckleberry’ exemplifies the most vivid, private, and honest inner emotions exacerbated by isolation—as fickle and contradicting as they may be.

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Submitted by Chara Ho.