Photographer

Juliet Taylor

School/Institution

Carey Baptist Grammar School, Vic.

Finalist in

Upper Secondary Category

Written Statement

Turbulence has many meanings. It means commotion and agitation. It means violent motion in water or can explain rough and irregular movements in an aeroplane. But turbulence can also mean confusion and can describe a disordered state. When looking at this definition, it also alludes to growth. This aspect of growth is what I focused on in my photography sequence.

Recently, life has been uncertain in many ways, due to the pandemic and everyone’s own personal struggles. This uncertainty has caused all kinds of emotional turbulence for all people, ranging from those who previously were coping well, to those who were struggling from the start. However, in places like Australia, life is starting to open back up again. This means there has been a return of normalcy, and the uncertainty is slowly being eased. Turbulence is becoming less and less prominent as a factor in people’s lives. Hope has returned along with laughter and reunited friends. However, whilst quality of life has improved since isolation, emotional scarring is still there and won’t ever cease to exist. This is the storyline I wanted to emulate in my photography.

My images feature a shattered picture frame containing an image of girl mid-laugh. This was to illustrate emotional turbulence, and that the happiness she once felt may no longer be present. However, as the sequence goes on, little plants start to sprout. This was to show that something good can stem from an unfortunate happenstance, and that life can improve. The final image still contains the shattered picture frame, just as emotional scarring never fully fades.