/ˈwiSH-ˌdriŋkər/
- A creature born of hopes and dreams, known to take on a form most pleasing and desirable to its beholder.
- It entices individuals to reveal their deepest wishes, only to leave them unfulfilled. While incapable of granting wishes, it deceives its victims into believing otherwise.
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After returning to suburbia from Cambridge, I was reluctant to photograph the strip malls, dilapidated barns, and liquor stores that filled the frames of images I had made decades ago when I first picked up the camera and began capturing my surroundings. I decided instead to take to the forest in search of a new perspective on suburban life.
After some wandering, I happened upon a reservoir that I later identified as our town’s primary water source, and, while exploring the area there, came across a single golden koi fish swimming in the reservoir. A creature from a dream; the punctum of the reservoir; it swam to meet me at the shoreline, where I marveled at it as it floated there, glistening in the noon sunlight. Any dreariness surrounding my return to suburbia was washed away - I was inspired.
Daily I return to the reservoir, communing with the koi fish and noting with my camera minute changes in the landscape: a spider’s web recently spun; a freshly fallen tree; new wind patterns that dance on the water’s surface, the rising or falling water level.
The waters follow me home. I carry them with me. In these ways, I am like the koi fish.