Locked

“The wide world is all about you; you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

Sometimes the most simple photograph can express so much, like this picture of a locked fence. Unaware of where it is located, what it locks in and whom it is intended to keep out, the viewer must form his/her own assumptions.

What does it protect? Who or what is locked in or closed out? Thinking about these questions inevitably leads to the questions on the larger scale....Who has the right to lock others out or in? Who has the right to decide what is kept from others? The government? Individuals?

At the risk of saying too much about my photograph, I was thinking about immigration issues when I took this shot; I thought it an apt metaphor for the ability of a state or country to close its doors and keep people out, and conversely, to keep its citizens "safe" inside.

Regardless of your stance on immigration laws, or even the ability of individuals to put up their own fences (literally and symbolically), I hope this photograph brings a lot of these important questions to mind and can help spark discourse about the concept of "putting up a fence to keep me out, or to keep mother nature in" (to quote from Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs").