Description

Artist Statement by Dustin Ferguson

A little girl plays hopscotch in the sand, her back to the camera, her eyes on the future. The river hums beside her. Mountains loom in the distance—silent, waiting. She hops forward with care, each step deliberate, each line sacred. For now, she knows only the rules she’s drawn in the sand.

Following My Path is a meditation on innocence and becoming. Captured in monochrome, the image strips the world to its essentials—light and shadow, right and wrong, the simplicity of childhood against the complexity to come. The girl is surrounded by nature, untouched by the weight of what lies beyond the frame. She is grace in motion, unaware of the mountains she’ll one day have to climb.

This photograph is about the space before knowing. Before the world teaches its harder lessons. It’s about the beauty of not yet understanding, and the quiet courage it takes to move forward anyway.

She follows her path, one hop at a time. And though she doesn’t yet know it, every step is shaping the woman she will become.