Shadow play and identity

My afternoon walk yesterday was, as always, beautiful … and packed with invitations to stray and play. Shadows force questions like Who am I? What is this? and Where do I belong?

Perspective: mini-brain me

photo of woman with long legs and tiny head

Would you settle for this identity: all legs, tiny head?

No secrets: you can see right through me

Photo of woman's shadow with elbows raised. Hilly suburb and sea in the background

Goddess or peg doll?

Yeah, I’m a prickly troll

photo of person with troll hair on dead gorse

Don’t take a stroll with an old gorse troll

Scarier and scarier, a shadow looming

Photo of a head and hand apparently looming out of a bank

That’s no bank. That’s me in my doll-troll hair-do. Run!

The troll shows her face and it’s not pretty

Shadow against clay of an ugly monster

Here comes a troll and she’s not a doll troll

Correction: not ugly, just pointy

Shadow of playful pointing woman on a clay bank

Don’t be scared: that was only a human woman being silly in the sun

Your comments on shadow play and identity are eagerly awaited. By me, whoever and whatever I am.

18 thoughts on “Shadow play and identity

  1. Sadje says:

    Vary interesting experiment.

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      Just for fun, Sadie! Try it: there’s a challenge.

      1. Sadje says:

        Okay Rachel, I will.

  2. Nyla Carroll says:

    Evokes childhood memories.๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ‘

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      True. Except for the phone in one hand.

  3. Nyla Carroll says:

    Evokes childhood memories ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ‘

  4. Dan Antion says:

    This was a fun read.

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      It was a fun walk.

  5. I love it! Fun in the sun. Fight the bright. Daylight sprite. Let the child within become the wild with out. Sun and shade = fun in spades. Celebrate the strange. Donโ€™t change.

  6. What a fun, and very clever, thing to do. I’m now hiding behind the settee!

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      You’re scaring me!

      1. I’m hiding because YOU scared me!

      2. Rachel McAlpine says:

        Oh good. So you should.

  7. Margaret says:

    How fascinating Rachel

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      And yet so simple ๐Ÿ™‚

      1. Margaret says:

        Yes Rachel ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. A brilliant idea – funny and very creative in a way that subverts the conventional view of photographs as vehicles for public image promotion! Radical ideas required currently, methinks …

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      I was tempted to use the troll as a pr photo for a poster when asked for one yesterday. Next time!

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