Home can be a very conflicted subject, as well as a source of peace and a haven. Personally, the way I think of my homestead now couldn’t be more disparate from how I perceived it as a child. I feel complete when I think how much of a beautiful and calm space I have created and how long of a journey, in a literal and metaphorical sense, I have made.
At the moment, it is a place of love, creativity, expression, and enjoyment. It is one of my favorite places in the world. I found it considerably easy to stay at home during the lockdown and get busy with my interests and passions.
I am very passionate about DIY and being self-sufficient. I like the idea of being able to make things myself without being dependent on others or what is accessible on the market. I enjoy the knowledge of understanding the processes that create things. In today’s world, the excessive use of chemical substances troubles me. When I make the product, whatever that might be, I take control of the ingredients, natural and organic.
One of my favorite DIY activities is making soap. I thought that my arts and crafts have to make it to the project. As I was preparing another batch of homemade soap, I took a few photos, hoping that some would be suitable for the activity. In the middle of the process, I noticed a curious composition with a spillage around a spoon. I took a few shots, for a moment forgetting (or shall I say my ego not allowing me to let go) about the method dictated by the project – mistakes, and aimed for a few nice, crystal clear shots of the spoon and the spillage.
When autofocusing on the object, something happened, something out of my control, autofocus fixed on a reflection in a spillage. Besides this one mistake, I took some really well-composed, focused shots, but that is not the point of the task. Subsequent and considerable ego battle resulted in the only choice I could have made. I favored the coincidental image as the best representation of the theme and the method underlined in the project.
Ela Skorska 