23rd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Wildlife
A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest

This is a photograph of a woman standing in an unkept wood with a deer. Representing the healing power of nature, but also representing suffering with the title, calling to Emily Dickinson's poem. Through dark, atmospheric photographs of the neglected, overgrown places where I grew up, I explore landscapes as unresolved as the memories they mirror. Twisted vines and forgotten paths reflect the shame and rage I’ve carried from past abuse. Capturing the sense of being lost and searching for something I never truly knew. These images become a visual meditation on what is taken, what remains, and the quiet hauntings held in both bodies and place.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 11.2025
Date Uploaded: 11.2025
Photo Location: Norwood, Massachusetts, United States of America
Copyright: © Chloe Ronco