A personal exploration of parenthood and the conflict between the desire for telling the truth; in order to prepare my daughter for the ups and downs of life and the desire to distort the truth as a mechanism for protecting her from the inevitable ills of life and society.
Ultimately my ‘real’ role as parent, being the one responsible for preparing my child for flying the nest directly through my teaching, is atdds with how we are culturally informed and pressured into guiding our young ones through the passive feeding of fairy tails, myths, legends and silver linings.
Life goes on in it’s gloriously unstoppable way and change is an inevitable part of that. Certain life changing events have come to pass recently which will subsequently, no doubt, have an affect on the life of my daughter. Fairy Tales was triggered, if not inspired by this ,resulting in my work looking ‘inward’ for the first time, ie looking at my own life for inspiration, rather than ‘outward’ for inspiration in the lives of others.
“Change is good” someone said once, maybe so, we shall see…
Simon Thorpe
Born in Zambia in 1970 where his father (an engineer) was working in the ‘copper belt’. Simon studied photography at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary Canada, after which he returned to London where he now lives and works for a diverse range of clients for his commercial work and his exceptional fine art commissions. Refusing to be pigeon holed Simon is currently working on an ambitious conceptual project shot in the Sahara desert. When completed the project will challenge the conventional boundaries between art and documentary !
