Picture
Caption: Photography: Khoa Nguyen & Gwen Palmer
Model & Story: Emily Palmer With(in)(out)
Picture
Caption: The first time he saw her, he thought he had imagined her into existence.
He stood in the garden, his hands picking at frayed pockets, as he wondered at the Spirit Girl before him.
Picture
Picture
Caption: She peaked at him between leaves, her body obscured by the fleshy green of Elephant Ears.
Hers was a reflection without a body to reflect, flitting between this world and another.
Picture
Picture
Caption: As he watched her, she aged before his eyes - as if her being a part of his world erased her from her own.
She stepped from between the leaves.
Picture
Picture
Caption: Perhaps she was of a different world, not bound by the same rules and principles.
Her world was simpler. And in the comfort of her simplicity she saw him as he was.
The blue of her eyes questioned him.
Picture
Picture
Caption: The shards of complexity that was of his world seemed to gather and converge before her eyes, like a newly completed mural.
Picture
Picture
Caption: He felt his faults rush forth, escaping cover, enshrouding him like a cloud.
Her gaze shifted.
He reached for her, as though by touching her he could change.
Picture
Picture
Caption: Her image flickered before him.
He reached again, but she disappeared behind a blush of flowers.
Picture
Picture
Caption: She peered at him from a distance.
Her eyes swam cerulean mirrors.
His reflection, like flecks of ash, swirled before him.
He looked away.
Picture
Picture
Caption: When he looked back, she had gone.
In the years that passed, he would look for her.
He yearned to see his reflection changed before her eyes.
Picture
Caption: But she was a spirit not of this world, better kept within than without.