July 17, 2021 |
Their darkness illuminates the complexities of life. Chance, love, loss, mourning. These photographs are part of a personal journey. Glen Erler’s work resonates with a poignance lived in the sometimes indecipherable shadows of life.
A cross stands roadside, bleached out but loved, attended, adorned with tiny flags and fading flowers, bloodstained asphalt anchored by a shoulder of rocks. The hillside stretching from here to nowhere, some kind of eternity, a poignant reminder of a life lived. A fragment in the firmament of the place that Erler called home.
This series of photographs was taken in one of those in-between times, in between the good and the bad, between life and death and loss. The rediscovery of these family photographs, misplaced at one point, is perhaps bittersweet. Erler has brought a new thought process to them, a new way of seeing as time worked away at his perception and creativity. Images of his daughters have been added. Complex, time passing, growing up, layered over and over each other, sister merging with sister.
Here is life, a tenuous glistening thread, a record of how such places change slowly, but then life itself often seems to move at the speed of light. That line we walk every day, every day of our lives taking things for granted. The edge of a bed, a soft quilt, vulnerable. A home. Shield our eyes against the light. A ghostly face through the glass, the window of a soul. Stillness. The end of a day. Sleep, illuminated by a midday shaft of sunlight. Family. People. Blood ties. Tears, disappointed, yet with love and beauty. Lost and found. A road to somewhere. A journey. Rich. Eloquent. Being yourself just feels like it’s the way it’s supposed to be. A young man escaped.
Photography by Glen Erler. Taken from Issue 66 of 10 Magazine – MY, HAPPY, PLACE – order your copy here.
