artherapyHQ GALLERY
WORK TITLE: TURNING PAIN INTO POWER
aRTIST: RAIN BERMUDEZ
mEDIUm: PHOTOGRAPHY
subject: toni marie
WORK STATEMENT
We answer to a God who never asks women to prove their value. So, starting today, let us take off our armor. May we live in our skin, in our strength and our weakness, in our beautiful humanity, and in the confidence that we have always been strong.
I’m both women, through and through. The strong woman with the fighting spirit and shameless independence. And the vulnerable one who wishes she could fall down without fear of the scoffers.
Jesus made me strong, but he never fails to point out my limits.
I am a strong woman. I fight hard. I speak loud. I walk even when there’s no end in sight. But my strength is not unending. I am not indestructible.
Why do I still feel like I have something to prove?
It’s a mark of privilege if you don’t feel like you represent an entire people group. A woman doesn’t have the luxury of only speaking and acting for herself on a micro level. She carries the reputation of half the sky on her shoulders.
The failures of a woman are not regarded as isolated incidents, but rather as evidence of a pattern across time and space. The inferiority of women. The incompleteness of women. The vulnerability of women.
Is it any wonder that women often feel like they must wear armor to survive? Like they have everything to prove? Like their strength must have no end?
I know I have felt that way—determined to keep my feet planted against the rushing tide, exhausted, wobbling, but unwilling to give even an inch. Unwilling to bend for fear I might break. Unwilling to let them see me waver.
I have nothing to prove.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Rain Photography chronicles the poetic nuances of daily life. Capturing the gritty “essence of the streets”; it’s people in movement on foot and on public transportation, he transmutes the seemingly mundane into expressive lyrical social commentary. Part photo journalist, part poetic memoir his work is inspired by his life experiences and finding the image within the image. “The foundation of the minds eye is the starting point of it all”. Drawing Inspiration from his predecessors - Roy DeCarava, Robert Frank, and Garry Winogrand, Rain is a student of every day life experience.
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