Promise Land by Lydia Panas
“These are my feelings, learned within the home as well as public expectations.”
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LYDIA PANAS: This work is about the things we keep hidden that create imaginary guilt and shame and prevent us from being all we want to be. The images attempt to describe how we feel when love is being withheld. The models are stand-ins for my feelings as a young girl, of hidden thoughts, uncertainty, and shame, generated by the fear of rejection. This is my story. I am a white woman, of Greek ancestry, an immigrant who spent my earliest years crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice. Both instances landed me in a country without the language to communicate.
Promise Land portrays women and girls as stand-ins for me. These are my feelings, learned within the home as well as public expectations. The story is mine, but I believe it is felt by all. I photograph my personal landscape in rural Pennsylvania, which includes friends and others who are willing to model.
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