AnnMarie Tornabene’s connection to nature began at the earliest age she can remember. Never feeling connected to the material world or contemporary times, the woods and the forest felt home to her with its magic and splendour and with the spirits that live within them. In the last 15 years, as the material world becomes colder and more aggressive, the desire to flee and stay escape in the natural world grows even stronger. However, as AnnMarie has had major changes in her life, as well as aging, there is also the desire to root herself and become grounded, but this feeling never lasts and she once again desires to flee.

 While these thoughts have entered AnnMarie’s photographic work throughout her artistic career, it has truly become the common thread between these recent multiple series of self-portraits that she began in 2021 and compiled together in 2024; when contemporary society made even less sense to her and when an uncertainty of her future became more prominent.