Antonio Espino Antonio Espino

A look into - "Flowerchild" - Self Portraits

Once again I found myself deep in thought staring out into nothing. Strange ideas and the stress of finding the next job, money and the lack of it weighing heavy on my mind.  I began to feel very existential and emotional over the fact that in the end, "for dust you are and to dust you will return". It got me thinking that we (as humans) constantly pride ourselves on the fact that we are different than anything else on the earth; we are special/unique/gifted. We have inherited the earth and we treat it like we can just up and move whenever we please once we are done using it. We forget (myself included) that we were born of the earth and to it we shall return, taking with us only what we came with and leaving behind the consequences of our actions for other generations to deal with. I was reminded of another quote, "When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will man realize that it cannot eat money." 

It's all somber and slightly depressive I know, but it got me wondering what we as humans look like from an outsiders' perspective. Bear with me on this, but what if other beings, not of earth, had a Discovery channel/Animal Planet show that featured humans; what would the show say about us? I imagined then, us being a product of the earth in a more literal sense, a flower. A flower that tries desperately to not be a flower and worries and stresses about only itself and getting a job, in exchange for "money" and giving nothing in return. A flower that must rely only on itself to make itself grow.

This is how I came up with "Flowerchild" and ongoing photo series about Human/Flower creatures. I will probably revisit the series at a later time when I am less "stressed". Thank you for reading. 

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