Secret Centre

“I was like a chocolate in a box, looking well behaved and perfect in place, all the while harbouring a secret centre.” ~ Deb Caletti

During February Photofest this year (yes it will be happening again in 2025) I posted an images called Quality Street. In it I wrote about how they reminded me of my Grandparents, that I had found a massive tin like you used to get in the old days in Costco and I had an idea for another image as a result

My idea was to save all the wrappers. So as we slowly consumed them everyone would put their used wrapper into another empty tin until finally they were all gone and all we had left were the wrappers.

My idea for the image was to use them like confetti and sprinkle them all over my naked body. Sounds brilliant right? Well not all ideas translate into great images.

On the bed they all just kept sliding off me and I ended up surrounded by them but it was hard to tell what they were. I then had the idea of laying in the bathtub and pouring them over me. It still didn’t really work. They ended up between my legs and down my sides. All much as I tried to scatter them over my breasts and tummy they just slide off. I realised they were too heavy. They are no longer made of that shiny plastic paper but coloured wax paper. Environmentally that is a brilliant thing but for this picture to work I was going to need 10 times as many wrappers and to be honest I wasn’t up for waiting until we had maybe eaten another 10 boxes.

Just before I got out of the bath I tried one last shot. My pubic hair seemed better at holding the wrappers in place so I piled as many up as I could and grabbed a couple of images. Sadly the wrappers reflected the light in the bathroom horribly but I rather liked this final result and thought it had a slight retro, 1970’s feel to it which definitely fits with the history of these sweeties and then I found this quote and well, secret centre indeed…..