Jennifer
Robison

The Order of Things

My work employs my daughter as a surrogate to explore an internal dialogue about everyday life experiences. The photographs began as a method of working through compartmentalized emotions from going through thyroid cancer treatment, but they have evolved as a way to process the rest of my life, too. I use butterflies in the photographs, they are a symbol for thyroid cancer referencing fragility and metamorphosis . Investigating the butterflies on a microscopic scale revealed the blue coloration was structural color. The visible blue wasn't actually blue but structurally colored iridescence, changing color based on light and perspective. Perception about the roles I play as mother, wife, and individual shifts over time like the color of the butterflies I photograph.