Evidence of cosmic order All evolution is a dance of wholes that separate themselves into parts and parts that join into mutually consistent new wholes. We can see it as a repeating, sequentially spiraling pattern: unity to individuation to competition to conflict to negotiation to resolution to cooperation to new levels of unity and so […]
Attending to light fosters deep perception and appreciation I was nineteen and majoring in photography at Rochester Institute of Technology when I made a commitment to the regular practice of black & white photography as a medium of personal growth. Prompted by insights gained from some images I’d made, I sat alone in my car […]
What can we do in the face of unsettling change, eroding confidence and civility? The world has tilted in the direction of uncertainty. Social, economic and cultural norms are shifting and many are being dismantled.[1] Droughts, tornados, fires and flooding are becoming more frequent and severe. Technologies are evolving faster than the wisdom to manage […]
Everything alive has a unique purpose Bristle Grass (Setaria species) I used to walk or drive by thousands of these and similar weeds every week. I barely noticed them, much less knew their names—until I singled this one out to photograph. A review of my catalog revealed that I had long been pointing a camera […]
What had to happen for these leaves to be photographed? Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the […]
Chapter 14: Pattern (The final in this series) Through repetition, patterns create visual harmony, rhythm and order, all of which can contribute to meaning and create a sense of stability and symmetry which is pleasing to the eye. Patterns are apparent in the energy fields within atoms, the immensity of the cosmos and the way […]
Chapter 10: Gradation Aesthetically speaking, “gradation” refers to a gradual or graded change of tone over a surface. Artists refer to it as a grading of “values.” In color photography, gradation can be a transition from one hue to another or to a different level of saturation or brightness. In black and white, it’s the […]
Chapter 3: Light and Lighting Regarding the mystery that light is, physicist Arthur M. Young wrote in The Reflexive Universe: Evolution Of Consciousness, “Light, itself without mass, can create protons and electrons which have mass. Light has no charge, yet the particles it creates do. Since light is without mass, it is nonphysical, of a […]
Invitations This is the final posting in The Soul of Photography series. Next week begins the follow-on practical series, The Aesthetic Dimensions in Art and Society, which for 13 weeks characterizes the many dimensions—abstraction, atmosphere, contrast, form, key, geometry and so on—with an emphasis on technique. The series is intended to increase one’s aesthetic awareness […]
Chapter 9: Connecting to Spirit by Rewinding Time In the Introduction to this series, I observed that, because the spiritualization of matter occurs in consciousness, photography is an ideal medium for personal growth and spiritual development. In my experience, the most powerful and effective practice for expanding perception, illuminating the spirit within a photographic subject […]
Contemplative Photography 