| My Website & Contact Details: |
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| www.theunveiledeye.com
www.xanga.com/EyetoI
theunveiledeye@hotmail.com |
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| Upside-Down
Minor White wrote about his "sequences":
"A few will understand that this group of pictures is for the love of God. Such persons will already know what that means. Perhaps a few who are on the borderline will catch in a sidelong glance a love of spirit...
I was repeating to myself, 'It is beautiful! It is beautiful!' A phrase that has no meaning other than it is the words that come to my lips when some aspect of the visual world is so charged with meaning that you are at a loss what to do or say. These moments when the visual world is transparent. When the intangible is more solid than steel..."
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He was taking pictures "for himself." For fine art exhibitions, magazines, and books. (Which I would also like to do, though the bulk of my time is currently commissioned portrait work.)
Spirit. Transparency. The intangible...
How to find this in and for a client...
When I looked at the portraits of the little girl above, I found myself drawn to the upside-down series. You don't often get to look at a person upside-down (you or them). The view is strange. But somehow she just seemed more "like herself" to me in the upside-down position. Perhaps I am feeling her blood rush, her flailing, her confrontation (and maybe the whole world is upside-down, not her?) She is another blond, blue-eyed beauty, but I chose the desaturated images, so we don't immediately label her. She is not simply "pretty." She is zany, full of character. Oh the two/three year old force!
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| Giving Life
This image reminds me of Aria's birth. The facial expression, the hand. Movement...spurting forth.
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"...the very mode of Western dualistic thought, which sets flesh apart from spirit, man apart from woman, life apart from death, and implicit in those divisions is struggle. When the Western mind asks, What is the solution? the Eastern mind replies, What is the problem?"
"Then look again at the prison song image from the letters: we are called into a strange old church, deserted except for the choir practicing; chastened spirits sing in the heat-depleted afternoon; they are behind the altar, separated from us by metal grillwork; the chants are beautiful, mesmerizing; one of the singers reaches out and takes hold of the grille--and suddenly we see that he is in a prison, that he is holding himself up by the bars so that he can sing, or perhaps he is trying to spread them, better to let the song out. It is, that image, a mirror, a message, and a manifestation. Imprisonment proves to be 'a stepping stone to accomplish a purpose.'
In White's best work the message in the profane mirror is always the same, a manifestation of the sacred--'things for what they are,' as he put it, 'and what else they are.' For homo religiosus every moment is potentially numinous; he makes of his life a kind of ritual, keeping himself alive to the possibility of transcendental experience, of revitalizing the spirit within him. All artists, perhaps even all iconographers, experience more or less deeply, more or less consciously, the excitement of reiterating the original business of the gods: working with the void of formless materials, they create microcosms. The photographer goes into the dark, works his magic, and comes out with little worlds. Watching a print come up in the developer, no matter how many times one has seen it happen, is always potentially exciting, for it can touch something very deep in us, and very old. As with all creative acts it can provide spiritual nourishment. What we too often and too glibly write off to the marvels of science is, in fact, as with giving life to anything, right at the heart of religious experience. Whether we know it or not, we are saying let there be light, we are naming the creatures yet again."
From "Minor White: Rites & Passages"
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I found Minor White's book, "Mirrors, Messages, & Manifestations" at the Ghost Ranch Library in Abiquiu, New Mexico this past summer. (I would love a copy, if anyone finds it in a used bookstore somewhere...) I stayed up nights, reading it and copying chunks of text into my diary. I search them now...
"Since Yes is all the creativity that a photographer has, it's all he needs." -Nevada 1964
"Admitting what I cannot do, when the shutter is released I catch the sound of stillness. I feel I AM release the shutter. It is like sitting so still that something realizes that my body is being breathed.
Confronted with camera images that simply Are, made by one who Is, an open heart will be wounded with joy." -New York 1964
Gazed at in silence wordless
silence patient and receptive
silence
a photograph will come to life
come to image
and understanding
will be a revelation.
Be still with yourself
Until the object of your attention
Affirms your presence
"To a student: 'Some day your camera may open to that rare lyrical state of love, translated into words as the 'splinter of divinity' in yourself, as it recognizes the same splinter in another." -Denver 1963
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My diary from that time says, "Remind myself to breathe--excitement so great...not happy with my assembly line photography, only rarely catching a glimpse of my subject's soul..."
I'm doing the same work as before. Same beaches. Same hotel weddings. Different people.
But I think I am "seeing the soul" a lot more.
Or perhaps just more aware of my own.
And we mirror each other.
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| Prosperity
I love the hands surrounding this baby, gives me such a feeling of comfort and love. Birth. Welcome.
I'm flying high tonight (partly due to coffee, partly just because I'm happy). Coming home after meeting with three clients, and doing late night grocery shopping, I greeted the friendly "ironer" man delivering clothes on our street (there's a tiny ironing shop attached to the mosque). Then almost tripped over a pile of our neighbors' shoes in the stairwell. And thought, "Many people don't have an 'ironer man' or piles of shoes to step over..." (In South Africa the shoes would probably be stolen in minutes. The other day I accidentally dropped 40 Rial ($100) outside...went back to look for it...and it was still there.)
Aria has had a cold this week (home from school), but I'm amazed at how much work I've accomplished (Thanks to the help of Herschel and Josafina). I've been feeling... robust. Eating well. Getting enough sleep. Yet somehow giving my clients more and more terrific pictures (sometimes 100+ shots for a family session).
I'm busy, shooting almost every day. But not stressed at all.
I came across Byron Katie's "The Work" which has really helped me. She talks about how to eliminate the feeling of stress/suffering, and I find it works!
In summary, you look at a negative feeling or belief you have, and ask yourself four questions.
Is it true?
Can I know this is true?
How do I react to this belief?/How do I feel when I believe it?
Who would I be without this story?
Without the negative belief, I would be happier! And I am.
I'm enjoying my jobs (yes, even weddings). I have a few subconscious mantras rolling around in my head.
"I have enough time."
"It's not about you." (It's about my clients.)
"I am prosperous. I have more than enough."
I've been asking myself what "abundance" and "prosperity" mean to me. Right now.
Look in my freezer and you'll see five kinds of ice cream. Chocolate. Strawberry. Cookies & Cream. Chocolate Chip. And Jamoca Almond Fudge. Ok...not exactly healthy. But ice cream makes me happy (and keeps me going nights!) I look in my freezer and feel ridiculously RICH.
I showed Aria, and she was impressed. When Hersch came home, she said, "Dad, you won't believe this...but there are FIVE kinds of ice cream in the freezer! Come see..."
Sometimes it's books. Chocolate. Flowers. Singing in the car. Sunlight. Water. Smiles. Birthdays. Kissing Aria's belly button.
Photography.
All my "thankfuls."
I used to feel that it was always "11pm." The time I usually started my night's photo processing work, after a long day of mommying/cooking/photo-jobs/etc. 11pm meant stressed and tired, and mad because I was working all hours instead of "having a life" or sleeping. A victim. A martyr. Oh brother!
It's currently 11:11pm. Lots of work to do... I'd better get going... But something has changed in me. I'm happy to work. I have enough time. Enough sleep. Enough money. Enough joy.
This is the reality of my life.
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| Time
I took one snapshot of this girl when she was a baby (6 or 8 months old), at a pool party. Her eyes intrigued me then. Direct gaze. I did a beach session with her family recently (having not seen her since that baby-day), and I still felt a connection. Like she remembered somehow.
Yes, little one, I see you.
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| Super Heros
I photographed a "Super Hero" birthday party tonight. Oodles of super-spider-kids running around. (Aria has been looking forward to this for weeks!)
In the photo processing queue:
3 weddings
2 birthday parties
4 family portrait sessions
This is where I shall be.
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