Photographs I Wish I'd Taken - #2

Lara Shipley

Crossing

I found this wonderful image thanks in part to The Oxford American. They were showcasing a collaborative project Lara Shipley was involved in and from there I was off to her website. There are many beautiful images on her site, but this one from her Coming, Going and Staying series really struck me. Of this project she writes, "Borders feel like places of movement. A transition point from one place to another. You don't think of people making a home there. But they do." The people in this case is a black(presumably stray) dog. Caught right in the cross hairs of Lara's lens. Between the rungs of a rust-red metal fence, flanked by two, oversized, orange traffic barriers, and backed by a landscape of bright yellow, concrete pilings. Surprisingly, the sunbaked dog looks content, seems to know exactly where it is going. I'll have to think of him(or her) next time I feel trapped, wether I'm in between two delivery trucks trying to sandwich me and my bicycle, or in my own thoughts, and remember to just keep moving.