by Stephanie Land
Tara, Brooklyn, New York. All images by Stephanie Land.
To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision.
– Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
I sketched this quote in pencil on my bedroom wall when I was 16; it was tucked away by my desk, around a field of flowers I had painted. It may have been the beginning of my feminist experience, without even knowing it. Maya Angelou’s writings got me through and out of my very young and traumatic abusive situation with a high school boy. While studying photography at Columbia College Chicago, I officially found a haven in my discovery of feminism. I found adopting a feminist ideology gave me the opportunity and sense of security I needed in order to express my anger, shave my head and let my hair grow in other places that weren’t considered feminine. I didn’t want to be called pretty, and I fought any kind of denigrating remarks made about women, whether on the street or in the workplace. I used the medium of photography to discover new insights. Continue reading
