Channeling Your Inner Child: A Portrait Series by Dani Parsons & Katherine Lam
What does it look like to nurture your inner child?
To honor and love where you started—and how you’ve grown? In this photo series, Future Front’s 2023 Communications Fellow, Katherine Lam, collaborates with Austin-based photographer Dani Parsons to reimagine play, sparkle, glitter and fun through the compassionate eyes of Future Front’s creative community.
Katherine Lam, as photographed by Dani Parsons
“I’m a Fourth-Year Psychology student at the University of Texas at Austin. Through my fellowship with Future Front, I was given the opportunity to produce my own portfolio project.
This project is meant for me to wrap up what I’ve learned through these past months, as well as a pathway to explore my creativity in a safe space. I decided on ‘Channeling Your Inner Child’ as my portfolio project theme.
I wanted to revisit childhood, the simpler times when I had no responsibilities or real-world consequences. As much as society loves hustle culture and the overall busy-ness of life, I wanted this opportunity to be a way for people to take a break from life. Often, we have to act accordingly in our everyday lives, in which we’re expected to be ready for the world at an early age. I especially feel this way as I’m graduating this semester, and I know others can also relate.
I decided to collaborate with Dani Parsons, the photographer and the magician behind these photos, to capture Future Front community members in the spirit of their childhood selves. Dani and I were able to come together to work toward a collective image in order to hit home with these portraits—giving our subjects permission to be silly and escape from the formalities of living.
As we age, we begin to learn more about the realities of life, often acting as a barrier to whatever we’re doing. These portraits are a reminder to let loose. I’ll use these—and my time at Future Front—as a reminder to stay true to myself, to be curious and forever ask questions that may or may not have an answer.”
ALL PHOTOS BY DANI PARSONS (@THEDANICREATIVE)
