Photographer

Ashlee Thomas

Finalist in

Open Category

Written Statement

Ever since I finished school I have have been able to learn through photography courses to really think about what you are trying to capture in a photo. Usually, when I think of fragility I think of a glass or a small ceramic ornament that could break easily if dropped. So I stopped and thought about what the meaning of fragility is.

The definition of this word is ‘the quality of being delicate or vulnerable’. When I think of the word vulnerable, something small comes to mind. I decided to explore this theme through the eyes of a macro lens. In each photo, I focused color only on the delicate objects to highlight them from their small world.

A butterfly always seems to drift so effortlessly across the sky. The most delicate part of their body, the wings, carry them great distances and always have such amazing detail – although not usually visible to the human eye.

A bubble also floats so smoothly across the sky, carried by the wind’s every move. But how vulnerable they are to almost any surface. I decided to capture my friend’s delicate small blow of air that gently nudged the bubbles from the wand as they floated up towards the sky.

Something else we may not notice is vulnerable is a small flame. It survives on oxygen so if we merely cut off that supply it extinguishes. For each photo, I used a macro lens and a fast shutter speed as the world of small things always seems to move very fast. I also gave each image a deep perspective to emphasise the small, fragile objects in their little world.