As my eyes fluttered open, fragments of the dream still clung to my consciousness like wisps of smoke. Faces and forms blurred together, their details slipping away with each passing second. Yet one haunting image remained seared into my mind's eye.

​

In the monochrome haze, a solitary figure stood before me, their features obscured by the shadows that danced across the cobblestone streets of Shadwell, London. An aura of innocence emanated from their silhouette, belying the ominous matte black balloons that seemed to tether them to the inky darkness above.

​

With each gentle tug of those tethers, the figure drifted closer to the void, their form becoming more indistinct, more ethereal. A beautiful nightmare unfolded, as if the boundaries between dreams and reality had dissolved, leaving me trapped in a liminal space where light and dark intertwined.

​

Instinctively, I raised the Mamiya Leaf camera, its weighty presence grounding me in the surreal moment. The 120mm black and white film captured the scene with stark clarity, freezing the figure's ascent into the abyss, preserving the fading reverie for eternity

​

As the last remnants of the dream faded, I found myself clutching the photograph, a tangible reminder of the haunting beauty that can exist within the darkest recesses of our subconscious minds. A testament to the power of dreams to blur the lines between the harmless and the haunting, the known and the unknown.

​

In that moment, I understood that nightmares, like dreams, are not merely figments of our imagination, but rather, they are windows into the depths of our psyche, inviting us to confront the shadows that lurk within and emerge on the other side, forever changed.