Spring Sigh

Jingdezhen, China, 2019

The beautiful woman is alone on the patio as Spring greets the world, her love has been lost to war and she awaits his return in vain. She is accompanied by the single butterfly, the symbol of love broken, no pairs indicating double happiness. The two pairs of kangaroos graze peacefully in the foreground. 

Inspired by poetry of Chen Tao

TURKESTAN
Thinking only of their vow that they would crush the Tartars-
On the desert, clad in sable and silk, five thousand of them fell..
But arisen from their crumbling bones on the banks of the river at the border,
Dreams of them enter, like men alive into the rooms where their loves lie sleeping.

Photography, Gus Clutterbuck