PROJECTION 001: DANIEL RAMPULLA "WILD PLACE"

"By the time I was in my mid-twenties I realized that I had a lot of unhealed scars from my adolescence that were consuming my body and mind. It actually hurt to look back on those times while in the closet; lying to myself and others and feeling guilty for wanting relationships with other men. Returning to the town where I grew up, walking through the woods behind my parents’ house, I could only remember pain and fear. Thinking about myself back then made me feel ashamed of who I’d been and who I'd become. I still felt trapped in my adolescent mind. I started this series of photographs to heal and forgive the person I was and had become. In order to uncage myself from the fears that controlled most of my life, I photographed familiar landscapes and bodies, searching for the feelings of desire and pain that I had ignored for so long. 

The outdoor scenes I photograph reflect the landscapes where I grew up and had most of my first time experiences. In the cover of branches and leaves these were ephemeral sanctuaries where we bumped bodies and tested ideas in messy harmony. I look for textures and shapes that remind me of the body and mind from my adolescence; scarred, neglected, untamed. Unlike photographing people, I do not direct nature in order to recreate an image of anxiety I feel towards it. Instead, I look for my reflection in the wilderness, allowing myself to be part of it." 

-Daniel Rampulla