The Sun is the most optimistic card I have included in this series. It symbolizes an emergence from the lunar night into the solar garden. To reach the higher degree of consciousness which this card represents, we look towards the innocence and the playful spirit of children.

There is a long history in Britain dedicated to fairy culture- including innumerous attempts (and "successes") in photographing them! As an ode to my childhood belief in fairies and the magic which nature held for me, I depicted two children as fairies sitting on a sunflower. They are properly irreverant towards adults who, in taking themselves so seriously, have forgotten how to play. My son is the boy in the card, taken when he was quite small. He is still trying to teach me this lesson and I am still trying to resist. As with many adults, I am overly entranced by the lunar night, but I did make a concession by including this card among the initial 15 I chose.

The original portrait was taken in my studio with a 4 by 5 camera and Black and White film. The children's hair colour was created using digital sampling of the sunflower petals and pollen. Their skin was tinted with the hue from the green leaves. The "fairies" are slightly translucent- one can see the leaves through their skin! The sunflower was growing on Ward's Island, in the garden of one of the few remaining houses. This image holds special significance for me as my parents were living on Centre Island (part of the Toronto Islands) when they met in the 50s. Only Ward's Island remains of the old community and it is continuously under threat of removal. It is remarkable that the presence of an old and now historic community is viewed by some as robbing the public of its given right to stroll on shaved grass and spend money at artificial amusement parks. They are evidently blind to the charm of shady little pathways which criss cross and connect the houses, the casual meanderings of cats and large toads and children on bicycles (there are no cars), surreptitious peeks into the unruly gardens and idiosyncrasies of its inhabitants. Ward's is the only place I have ever come upon a tree completely covered and undulating with the glorious wings of thousands of migrating Monarch butterflies! I only saw it once, but what a sight! I'd love to live there too, but because I can't doesn't mean no-one should, and its magic is there to share with all who can see it. Centre Island already exists for the people who prefer order and concession stands. Save Island Homes!

Text and photography: Linda Dawn Hammond

NOTE: All images and text on this site are protected under International copyright laws.
Linda Dawn Hammond, 2003

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