Photographer, Wayfarer, Sorcerer

Images by Hayley Theyers

NINA SEJA

Suspended Time
In the depths of lockdown, Hayley Theyers created Miniature Otherworlds ― photographic tableaux when the world was simultaneously shrinking and expanding. The fantastical creatures and landscapes set against an inky blackness suspend the logical and the everyday. Magic is Afoot shows Pegasus and hares ― a gathering of familiars. Managing the unreality of the pandemic meant channelling otherworldly realms that had their own logic.

Mythic Time
This interest in fairytales, echoes of Jungian psychology and surrealism expands beyond lockdown. Theyers’ interest in these Otherworlds has been an ongoing one. A tapestry of death personified, lush textures, the natural world as signposts to wisdom or warning. Rituals not to explain the world as much as to delve into its mysteries. Creatures are liminal, occupying the interstices: seahorses as bridges between land and sea; winged horses as those between earthly contexts and the divine.

Mastery of Time
In Theyers’ work, there is a promise that chaos can be managed through mastery―of magical properties, prayers, and an awareness that humans are but one part of the universe. Beseeching is one pathway to deal with the macabre (May your dead protect you); folk medicine and natural philosophies are another (Mandrake and Adder Snake). In an image of the latter, an adder snake emerges from the mouth ― a mid-ritual summoning of spirits. Mandrake and adder snake were medieval heavyweights in medicine: venomous but protective. Mandrake meant communing with the spirits and adder snake was an amulet against evil. These are symbols of lore, half forgotten.

Circular Time
Time is not linear in Theyers’ world. As the pandemic showed, time can be paused, morph, and be just not like it used to be. Metamorphosis appears in Milk and Honey. A figure is protectively encased in gold fabric ― an amniotic sac. The scene is set in All the Glooms were Rosed with Wing ― the final ingredient procured, the amulet blessed, before the combination releases the curse or spirits are called. Change is on the precipice, although what is on the horizon is not defined. It is significant, however, and the tableau, so deliberate and ornate, makes a promise that whatever comes is purposeful.

Embodied Time
Theyers’ worlds are not just invocations to Otherworlds. They are also decidedly human. Skeletons remind us not just of our mortality but also of the experience of being embodied. They remind us of the thresholds between birth and death. They remind us of the sanctity and gift of prayer. Ancestors are called up―they, too, have had a human experience and their wisdom remains.

Published in issue 194, Winter 2025