Hello everyone,
I'm happy to take part in the #Phonography contest created by 
@untilwelearn/phone-photography-contest-68
I searched through some photos on my phone and there’s a story behind them, maybe more, a journey.
You should know that I’ve always worked. Right after graduating from university, I started with a research grant at the university itself, and after two years I moved to a company that was eventually acquired by a multinational corporation.
I stayed in that company for about 16 years. During that time, I got married, built a family, had two children. Then one day the company decided they no longer needed me.
I felt like a withered rose.
That’s exactly how I felt: a dried-up, useless flower.
It took a long time, several months I remember well, to regain control of myself.
The truth is that I had identified completely with my job, with what I did. I had lost my sense of self. I identified with my role in the company, not with who I truly was, just as the society I lived in had shaped me to do.
I had to go deep into the darkest corners of myself to find the strength again, to understand that it wasn’t the end. That I was so much more.
I was many things, and also one only thing, a unique and unrepeatable individual person.
I had to face and heal many wounds to my self-esteem. I stitched it back together piece by piece, like a patchwork quilt. And even when new job opportunities came, it took me years to truly regain trust in myself.
Walking helped me a lot. Walking for kilometers and kilometers, headphones in my ears, listening to the rhythm of my racing heart and observing the details of the world.
And photographing them, that helped me a lot, to regain my focus focussing on the smallest thing.
Getting close to the small creatures of the Earth, closer and closer, trying to catch the shades, the folds, the essence, gently,
Telling them: You’re not a threat to me. I’m not a threat to you.
And it’s from those walks that the photos I’m sharing were born together with my beloved butterflies.
To me, they’re not just beautiful insects, they are a symbol of transformation, of rebirth, of freedom. The kind I feel within myself today.
After so much struggle, now I feel free again. Light, fragile, and strong all at once, just like a butterfly. Maybe not perfect, as this shots, but wild and free, like me
...and I feel... good!
Thank you for reading
See you soon
Much love ❤️
I am Italian, language in which this post has been written and then translated using online tools. Please forgive little mistakes.
All the photos are from my oppo reno z4 in 1:1 mode, no macro mode or macro lenses have been used