As a kid, did you ever make shadow puppets? I know I tried for years to make the perfect rabbit, and I was beside myself when my dad taught me how to make the perfect dog. For ages I thought that I made a very convincing cat, but it was really a jumble of fingers!
Shadows have always fascinated me. As a child, lighting candles to make shadows on the wall was a fantastic game. As I grew up, like the picture above, I found shadows made for pretty awesome photography!
The dictionary definition of shadows is: "an area where light from a light source is obstructed by an object." It is a place where light cannot reach. Metaphorically, it is quite a bleak place. If you have ever studied English Literature at school, you will have read countless times about shadows being a "foreboding presence". In Macbeth, shadows are used to hint at dark memories and sinful acts, yet they are distant and not tangible "Out out, brief candle! Life is but a walking shadow..." (Act5, Scene 5) - it is an illusion, yet one that stays with you, and never leaves. The candle will never fail to show the shadows you try to hide from (sorry, got a bit carried away there! Macbeth is my favorite Shakespeare play!). In episodes of Charmed, shadows are the messengers of the underworld, making sure that the word of evil deeds reaches all ears. Again, they are the ones that remember the bad doings.
Yet, I still quite like shadows.It may be dark, and slightly ominous given that you cannot see anything about it but the black outline. There is something beautiful about a silhouette, the way it shows nothing more and nothing less than the outline. It isn't tainted by decoration or by clothes to hide the real thing. It just is what it is. The shadows, for me, prove that there is light there. They prove that something beautiful is out there, and it has hit me, casting an image for me to see.
When you look at the shadows above, what is you first thought? Is it positive or negative? Are they shadows of your past, or shadows from light?
Image from: http://painfulsilences.tumblr.com/post/93135406546
