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Magical You: A Senior Listener Lyric Photographic Diptych by Emma Askren (2017)

My lyrical essay titled “Magical You,” represents what it’s like for someone to become more comfortable with their belief in Paganism and practice in witchcraft. This person is comfortably letting people know, but is faced with many judgements when they find out. I learned from my interview subject what it is like to practice such a “normal” thing, and how society and even close family can harshly judge this concept they don’t usually hear about.

“Whatever you really want, you will attract it. Everything is connected.” I felt that this passage very well explained everything my interviewee and I talked about. If you think about the portrayal of witches from the past- making spells and leaves and herba to make concoctions- you may realize through this lyrical essay that this is no fairytale; it is legitimate. Instead of the “evil” view of witches, look at it from this perspective I learned in the interview: They worship nature… this connects to the past portrayal of using natural ingredients for brews and spells, which today is as simple as burning sage or using aromatherapy. I found it amazing as I listened to my interviewee because I realized it’s true what the passage I chose says, that everything is connected: many religions worship some sort of being or thing, and have practices and rituals for it; witchcraft is exactly the same.

To edit this photo, I selected the sky with the “magic wand selection tool”- even the tiny white spaces between the branches of the trees. I did this by zooming in until I saw pixels and selected every part of the sky my eye could find. After my selection was made, I used the “fill” technique to select a color for the sky, and changed the opacity to 13% to make it less harsh.
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