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View allAll Photos Tagged Potentiality
the most precisely articulated national purpose in recorded history. Not only is it a famous statement of purpose: it is also an admirable statement of purpose. Prior to July 4, 1776, the national purpose of nations had been to dominate... The American national purpose was the opposite: to liberate from domination; to set men free. All men are created equal.
We not only have a national purpose; we have one of such aspiration, such potentiality, such power of hope that we refer to it — or used to — as the American Dream :-)
Archibald MacLeish, in LIFE, "Eloquent Guides to America's National Purpose," 1960
Truth Matters! Character Matters!!
waterlily, j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina
Every being in the universe has the potentiality of transcending the senses. Even the little worm will one day transcend the senses and reach God. No life will be a failure. There is no such thing as failure in the universe. Sri Sathya Sai Baba
~happy fence friday~
Some of the real demons in this upside down world are those which we carry within.
From early childhood they grow within silently... abandonement issues, abuse and anger fuel their growth, increase their power and consume us year after year.
By the time we are fully grown they have reached there full potentiality, tearing us apart from within and destroying anything good within and around us.
They distort our perception and darken our world with sorrow and pain.
In the end we percieve reality through the eyes of that tiny child and all alone and afraid we cling to any light looking for salvation, love and kindness.
For some of us it never arrives and even when it does by destiny, chance or fate... once again our our demons have there way and once again we are all alone with them . ~ Ra
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Hola my friends and followers
This is my first Colaboration with my always beautiful and amazing friend and fellow blogger Ruby Darksoul. I had so much fun and with help from Corvinus Dankworth and Zabrina from her family.. i ended up with this beautiful shot.. Much love to everyone there. <3
© 2008ChristinaB ~~ Explored!!!!
The man of character finds an especial attractiveness in difficulty since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.
~Charles de Gaulle
Excerpt from rbg.ca:
Hearing the Song
Artist: Marianne Reim, Canada; installed in 2017
Hearing the Song uses the most inflexible of materials, stone. Drill marks are placed in such a way that the split stone has two surfaces with identical rows of musical staffs.
“These mirror images, side by side, are divided by a negative space. The negative space is not absence, but rather the presence of potentiality. Each viewer/seeker, who comes to this work can bring their own song and can honour what they hear.”
Merton distinguishes two aspects of wisdom: . . . metaphysical and speculative, an apprehension of the radical structure of human life, an intellectual appreciation of man in his human potentialities and in their fruition. . . . moral, practical, and religious, an awareness of man’s life as a task to be undertaken at great risk, in which tragic failure and creative transcendence are both possible . . . a peculiar understanding of conflict, of the drama of human existence, and especially of the typical causes and signs of moral disaster . . . beyond the conscious and systematic moral principles which may be embodied in an ethical doctrine and which guide our conscious activity. Wisdom also supposes a certain intuitive grasp of unconscious motivations, at least insofar as these are embodied in archetypes and symbolic configurations of the psyche.
-The future of wisdom : toward a rebirth of sapiential Christianity / Bruno Barnhart ; foreword by Cynthia Bourgeault ; afterword by Cyprian Consiglio.
As late fall gives way to early winter there is an incredible quiet and peaceful feeling that comes over the rural Illinois landscape. Why this should be so is hard to explain. The trees in the timber have lost their leaves and stand like charcoal gray silhouettes in the background. The sounds of summer which are usually filled with the busy chatter of birds gives way to a silence disturbed only by the wind whistling through nearby objects. The grain harvest is all in except for a few end rows left to feed the wildlife. People are staying inside more and migrating and hibernating animals have disappeared from the scene. Insect activity too has come to a halt. Peaceful? Absolutely. I think it is because there is a sense now that the hustle and bustle of spring and summer with all of it’s implied potentiality is long gone and it gives way to a sense of not having so much to think about and do. A person can actually slow down now just as nature has done and get a little much needed rest. I absolutely love this time of year. I’m all about peace and rest. Soak it in. Revel in it if you like. Slow down and relax. There will be time for busyness again come spring. Cheers.
Timberline Meadow. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.
A timberline meadow with small trees is bounded by a granite bench.
I recall the time, quite a few years ago, when I first understood that the places in the natural world (and the human world, for that matter) that we identify with are not necessarily the most iconic, biggest, most classically impressive places. I was at the end of a moderately short backpacking loop out of Tuolumne meadows, within perhaps little more than an hour of the trailhead. It was a day of potential rain, and that potentiality became reality at this point. I stopped, put on rain gear and covered my pack, stepped off the trail, sat down, and leaned against a rock to watch the rain approach. Decades later I still remember that rock and consider it a thing worth visiting — although I’m sure that no one else would even notice it.
I passed by the spot in this photograph a couple of times during our August backcountry photography visit to the Eastern Sierra. There are, I’m certain, thousands of similar little meadows throughout the Sierra — most from a stream meandering through, green with meadow grasses, bounded by granite and small trees. But somehow this particular spot caught my attention and, I think, may have become one of “those places.”
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
by artist Stevens Vaughn.
This beautiful work was on the pier at Lorne for the 2022 Lorne Sculpture Biennale.
The theme this year was "The Spirit of Place".
Many thanks for your visits, kind comments and faves, very much appreciated.
Explore #422
The ultimate motive which leads the believer to Mary is, as already said, the desire to be within the orbit of her holy life. The believer desires to dwell in her proximity, in the aura of her being, and in the intimacy of her mystery. The word mystery does not stand here for a riddle in the sense of something still unsolved. It conveys rather a quality, a potentiality, a sphere: the governance of God in man, the breath of eternal life. Here the worshipper wants to enter; here he wants to dwell, to breathe, to become quiet, and to receive comfort and strength to continue his life with renewed courage.
-The art of praying : the principles and methods of Christian prayer : formerly entitled Prayer in practice / Romano Guardini.
By Ramesh Rai:
When the air stops to blow,
the flower stops to blossom,
stops to sprinkle its fragrance
the waves of ocean and seas
stops to come to its bank
the cloud stops to rain
the bee stops to sip
nectar from flower
all stars and planets
stop to function
the entire nature will pause
and shall stand still, be mute
like deaf and dumb
the whole lives will be stationary
and shall loose their potentiality
Then i will urge my poetry
to go and tell them not to stop
Human life on the earth
is being perished
I, on behalf of the Mankind
promise to make a good understanding
and sear not to harm the nature
please break the silence.
Hearing The Song by Marianne Reim found in Hendrie Park in the Royal Botanical Gardens located in the City of Burlington Ontario Canada.
Hearing the Song
Artist: Marianne Reim
Canada; installed in 2018
Hearing the Song uses the most inflexible of materials, stone. Drill marks are placed in such a way that the split stone has two surfaces with identical rows of musical staffs.
“These mirror images, side by side, are divided by a negative space. The negative space is not absence, but rather the presence of potentiality. Each viewer/seeker, who comes to this work can bring their own song and can honour what they hear.”
Dan Lawrie International Sculpture Collection
Royal Botanical Gardens National Historic Site of Canada
©Copyright Notice
This photograph and all those within my photostream are protected by copyright. They may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written permission.
After being delayed for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 7th Lorne Sculpture Biennale saw many amazing artworks along the beachfront.
The theme ‘Spirit of Place’ asked participating artists to respond to 16 themes exploring Lorne’s histories and the beauty of its natural environment.
American artist Stevens Vaughn created “The Throne of Potentiality” a huge bronze throne containing many Australian icons. The throne sat at the end of the Lorne Pier.
Another view of a local mansion, also "tumbled" and colour enhanced. Taking a standard camera function and deliberately sabotaging its purpose to create these fragmented, cubist images digitally.
"Houses in Motion" ... a literal suggestion? Not with David Byrne I'm willing to bet. A metaphor? Perhaps. Aren't we all, as embodied beings, houses in motion?
The "TumbleWorld" series has the quantum proposition at its heart - many planes or dimensions, potentialities, all present simultaneously. When we 'chose' one, the others fall back into potentia and the one chosen becomes the view. In this way consciousness begets the world we see.
At the very least there's the fun of a hybrid Surrealist / Cubist view.
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Music Link: "Houses in Motion" - David Byrne, from his live tour "The Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno" ( 2009 ). Great sound and video, with the video just slightly out of sync with the audio, but who cares? And what's with all those industry people standing at the side of the stage absolutely motion-LESS while this incredible piece of pure funk is going on in front of them? I know MY particular 'house' would definitely be in motion !!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVme7RpTypw
View Large on Black.
© Richard S Warner ( Visionheart ) - 2015. All Rights Reserved. This image is not for use in any form without explicit, express, written permission.
"When I saw him look at me with lust,
I dropped my eyes but, in glancing away from him,
I caught sight of myself in the mirror.
And I saw myself,
suddenly,
as he saw me.
And, for the first time in my innocent and confined life,
I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption
that took my breath away..."
-Angela Carter
Blog Post
Excerpt from www.bwst.ca/the-artists/flock:
Christopher Reid Flock began a ceramic mentorship with Canadian ceramist Kayo O'Young in 1997 followed by ceramic studies at Sheridan College School of Ceramic Design. In 1999, Flock moved to Japan initiating a self-guided cultural and studio emersion. Returning to Canada in 2009, Flock unpacked the ten years of study through numerous community activities, national and international exhibitions.
In 2014, Flock initiated a world first with Siemens Canada and Mohawk College in CT scanning a 6000BCE Jomon-yaki vessel. Employing traditional clay processes with rapid prototyping he questioned process and cultural engagement from a colonial perspective with historical clay artifact as institutional plaything.
A short-listed candidate for the permanent outdoor ceramic sculpture, Gardiner Museum, Recipient of the 2014 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics, the 2015 Founders Award at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, through the support of three Canada Council for the Arts grants, and an MFA in 2022, Flock continues to push the clay envelope.
His work can be found in international private collections, the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France, the permanent collection at the Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan, the Residence of the Prime Minister of Canada, Permanent collection at the Clay and Glass Gallery Waterloo, Canada, and the Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington, Canada.
Artist Statement:
I have reified my notion of clay as a physical piece— a basking clay form linked to my malleable processes. Precarious in isolation, momentarily caught in a literal sense of materiality, this figurative gesture leans into vulnerability. I have reached into “potentiality” and trusted my grip. From that reach I present the chaotic as form. Here, I emulate creative play and the agency of possibility. This provides a visual and auditory context into how and where I am in the present. I see this as a reorientation of the self-conscious— steeped in an appeal to the phenomenal. Because it is phenomenal that I now stand here, in this place l as the next generation of what, where, and why we progress with(in). This line of process made me feel small. Not in a ferocious self-sabotage way, but because this creative act forced me to embrace vulnerability. Vulnerable to change in material, scale, and a general perception of things taken and others discarded. That our minds are capable, especially at a young age, to remove what you need and then discard (or turn away from) the rest I felt important to hit. And as a potter, as a human, this is how and where new ideas form. Above all, clay (land itself) has helped me to be malleable.
Anatomy of a otograph by Stefania Piccioni
The pre-production phase of my project is where all the planning takes place before the camera rolls. Whether its measured in minutes, hours or days, my planning phase sets the overall vision of my Project.
Can you explain us the idea or the story behind this image?
This photography is part of an all B/W series called “Still life part VII”. It can remind the theory of shadows of descriptive geometry, or something similar made with a camera or a smartphone, in substitution of a x-ray, with bottles instead of solids. I made this still life thanks to the morning light of the sun, which I used as the only bright source. The potentialities of light allow me to accentuate all the contrasts. I chose to use a white bottle both to highlight contrasts with the shadows and create an effect of positive/negative with the black background. This image represents a middle ground between a strict geometrical synthesis.
Tell us how it is taken from the most technical aspect.
I took this picture at 10am in the morning, when the sun was enough high to project the shadow of the bottle on the plan with the right grade, in a well defined way. I changed a bit the prospective by getting closer from to the bottom to the composition, thanks to wide angle.
What problems and challenges did you face when you took the shot of this image?
The most difficult thing to face was the speed of execution because of the sun, because it rotates rapidly, changing the conditions of light. We know well that we need time enough to focus every single detail of composition and light to make a good still life. Besides, I was conditioned by weather: if sun was covered, I could not work.
We are talking about the postproduction process. How do you get the final result?
I do my work in post-production with Adobe Photoshop. The first step was expanding the image, then I balanced the picture in a correct way, thanks to curves and other tools of Photoshop. Thanks to curves I also highlighted blacks and whites and this allowed me to obtain these contrasts in my picture.
The most fundamental characteristic of human existence is that we seek the fulfillment, the end or telos, of our nature. Any nature has potentialities or powers that demand to be actualized, and when those potentialities are actualized with excellence when they are brought to perfection, we say that the nature in question flourishes as it was meant to flourish.
-Beauty and Imitation
A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts, Daniel McInerny
I am not a terrorist. I am a victim.
I really share with you a difficult process .... the building of the serie ... from zero ... scanning the pictures, discovering their potentiality ... and your works nourish me so much ... some time I hate this distance I have ... I find my images so "straight in the face" .... without poetry ... maybe because I'd love to be neutral ... but this is impossible ... especially to me ! ;D ... but maybe this is necessary too, the distance ... and also I used many different films ... difficult to create an harmonious style for the serie ... and so many things to express at a time ... still didn't decide the final rendering ... and at the same I wish to respect the realism of the situation ... still don't know how to handle this ... maybe there are two series coming out parallely ... feel a little bit lost ! tomorrow it will be better ! ;p
Please, go and have a look on what it inspired to EXITOR and maybe participate ! ;p
New paper published: www.scielo.br/j/icse/a/YDCsvyNgpjp9Nm5n5mbBdxN/?lang=en#
Novo artigo publicado: www.scielo.br/j/icse/a/YDCsvyNgpjp9Nm5n5mbBdxN/?lang=pt
Fruto da minha pesquisa de doutorado / from my doctoral research
Resumo
O artigo apresenta uma cartografia dos acontecimentos vivenciados em um curso durante a pandemia com estudantes e profissionais da área da Saúde, adaptado para o ensino a distância e tomando fundamentalmente os conceitos de presença e experiência. Envolvendo criatividade e meditação e tendo como metodologia a fotografia contemplativa, a atividade objetivou apresentar a potência das práticas contemplativas e do Círculo Narrativo na criação de um espaço de acolhimento e de ampliação da percepção, permitindo que o tema da humanização seja abordado experiencialmente. Por meio das narrativas dos participantes e por meio de imagens e palavras, apresentam-se os impactos e sofrimentos vividos, bem como a percepção das potencialidades das frestas, ou seja, das aberturas. Tais frestas, criadas ou descobertas, geraram experiências coletivas de acolhimento e afetos disparados pela imagem, permitindo que os acontecimentos se tornassem interpelativos e criassem sentidos em dias tão difíceis.
Fotografia contemplativa; Meditação; Saúde; Ensino; Pandemia
Resumen
El artículo presenta una cartografía de los acontecimientos vivido en un curso durante la pandemia con estudiantes y profesionales del área de la salud, adaptado para la enseñanza a distancia, tomando fundamentalmente los conceptos de presencia y experiencia. Envolviendo creatividad y meditación y teniendo como metodología la fotografía contemplativa, el objetivo de la actividad fue presentar la potencia de las prácticas contemplativas y del Círculo Narrativo en la creación de un espacio de acogida y de ampliación de la percepción, permitiendo que el tema de humanización se aborde experimentalmente. Por medio de las narrativas de los participantes, utilizando imágenes y palabras, se presentan los impactos y sufrimientos vividos, así como la percepción de las potencialidades de las grietas, es decir, de las aberturas. Tales grietas, creadas o descubiertas, generaron experiencias colectivas de acogida y afectos, disparados por la imagen, permitiendo que los acontecimientos pasasen a ser interpelativos y creasen sentidos en días tan difíciles.
Fotografía contemplativa; Meditación; Salud; Enseñanza; Pandemia
Abstract
This study presents a cartography of the events experienced in a course during the pandemic, with health students and professionals, adapted for distance learning, using fundamentally the concepts of presence and experience. Involving creativity and meditation and using contemplative photography as a methodology, the activity aimed at presenting the potential of contemplative practices and the Narrative Circle in creating a space for welcoming and expanding perception, allowing the partakers to approach humanization in a experimental way. Through the participants’ narratives, using images and words, we could witness the impacts and sufferings they experienced, as well as the perception of the potentialities of the gaps, in other words, the openings. Created or discovered, such gaps generated collective experiences of acceptance and affection, triggered by images, transforming the events into questions and creating meanings in such challenging days.
Contemplative photography; Meditation; Health; Teaching; Pandemic
Another boyintree92 - J2P collaboration brought to you by the Inspiration Tree
I want to dedicate this one to Charlie. His potential is limitless. Charlie is an artist, a cook, a gardener, a writer, a student, a teacher, a friend and an inspiration. A friend recently said that Charlie had “a knack for getting at the essence of things.” How true that statement is. I look forward to his continued growth and experiencing more of life through his eyes. My mothering nature wants to protect Charlie from the sharp scrapes and gouges of life. I can’t do that for him anymore than I can for my own children. It is all part of that growth. Charlie, please remember, as your life continues to change, you are valuable. You have touched our hearts. We are better for it.
English
Location: Rome, Lazio Region, Italy – Sept. 2024
Camera: Nikon D2X + Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8
Adjusted in Adobe Photoshop
I recently purchased a 20-year-old lady I think can still surprise me. This picture shows one of the first shots I took to test the potentiality of my new (second-hand) Nikon D2X. I was shocked by the sharpness and flexibility of the raw file and amused by the shooting process, which is more similar to film photography than more recent digital cameras. I do not need to describe the beauty of the Roman aqueduct archeological park: a wonderful place in Rome, far from the most traditional tourist tours.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without my explicit permission.
Italiano
Posizione: Roma, Regione Lazio, Italia – Settembre 2024
Fotocamera: Nikon D2X + Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8
Modificato in Adobe Photoshop
Ho acquistato di recente una signora di venti anni fa che penso possa ancora regalarmi delle sorprese. Questa foto mostra uno dei primi scatti fatti per testare le potenzialità della mia nuova (usata) Nikon D2X. Sono rimasto scioccato dalla nitidezza e dalla flessibilità del file raw e divertito dal processo di scatto, che è più simile alla fotografia su pellicola che alle più recenti fotocamere digitali. Non ho bisogno di descrivere la bellezza del parco archeologico dell'acquedotto romano: un posto meraviglioso a Roma, lontano dai più tradizionali tour turistici.
Per favore, non utilizzare questa immagine su siti web, blog o altri media senza la mia esplicita autorizzazione.
The title "Private Dreamer" suggests a deeply personal moment, where the subject is lost in their own thoughts or dreams, detached from the outside world. This evokes a sense of solitude and introspection, where the inner world of the dreamer takes precedence over external reality.
The empty chair symbolises absence and potentiality, suggesting the presence of another person who might join the scene or the absence of someone who once did. The empty chair can be seen as a metaphor for unfulfilled potential, missed opportunities, or the inherent loneliness of human existence. It also creates a sense of balance in the composition, emphasising the isolation of the subject.
The reclined posture, with eyes closed and a relaxed demeanour, indicates a break from the daily routine, a brief escape into a private world of dreams and thoughts. This moment of tranquility is contrasted by the wild, unkempt grass surrounding the chair, suggesting that peace and quiet are found amidst the chaos of everyday life.
He is my friend and watching sunset at Khairabera. It is situated in Purulia District, West Bengal, India. Driving distance from Purulia to Khairabera Dam is 67 kms. This is an Irrigation Dam amidst hills and forest at Baghmundi. It is a beautiful and pleasant place with high potentiality to be developed as an attractive tourist spot.
Beautiful Bengal
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"Although strong emergence is logically possible, it is uncomfortably like magic. How does an irreducible but supervenient downward causal power arise, since by definition it cannot be due to the aggregation of the micro-level potentialities? Such causal powers would be quite unlike anything within our scientific ken. This not only indicates how they will discomfort reasonable forms of materialism. Their mysteriousness will only heighten the traditional worry that emergence entails illegitimately getting something from nothing." (Bedau 1997)
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Source: Emergence || "Central Relatedness" or "RedPixel" or "Tat Tvam Asi" or "Αα" ||
The Montado Of Alentejo / Ribatejo by Daniel Arrhakis (2015)
For details :
www.flickr.com/photos/arrhakis/15831857994/sizes/k/
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With the typical cante alentejano (singing), polyphonic, executed in a group and without music.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph24cpUg89k
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The number on the trunk (1) of the Cork Oak (Quercus suber) is the year that the last cork was taken out, in this case 2011 (next one only in 2020).
In Portugal agro-silvo-pastoral systems correspond to the mixed land use types characteristic of the region of Alentejo, in the southern part of the country.
There is a triple and complementary use of the land, adapted to the low potentialities of the soil and to the Mediterranean climate: open evergreen forest (oaks, olive and chestnut trees), grazing and cultivation. Due to their mixed characteristics and to the extensive form of exploitation, these systems constitute varied landscapes of high biological diversity.
It takes 25 years before a cork tree is old enough to harvest. Then you can only harvest once every 9 years and the 1st two harvests do not produce good quality cork.
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This time my next works will be a little different and about real nature.
This work is in AWAKE CHALLENGE # 3 - FORESTS OF OUR FUTURE (February 1 to 28 of 2015) :
www.flickr.com/groups/awakeartforacause/discuss/721576501...
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A wonderful day dear friends ! Thank you for your comments, invitations and visit, much grateful ! : )
So sorry, i am a little away behind but i will try to catching up all of you !
The idea that the Supreme Principle is both Absolute Reality and, for that very reason, Infinite Possibility, can suffice unto itself, for it contains everything, notably the necessity for a universal Manifestation.
From a less synthetic point of view, however, and one closer to Maya, we may envisage a third hypostatic element, namely the Perfect Quality; being the Absolute, the Principle is thereby the Infinite and the Perfect.
Absoluteness of the Real, infinitude of the Possible, perfection of the Good; these are the "initial dimensions" of the Divine Order.
This order also comprises "modes": Wisdom, Power, Goodness, that is, the content or the substance of the Supreme Principle consists in these three modes and each of them is at once Absolute, Infinite and Perfect; for each divine mode participates by definition in the nature of the divine Substance and thus comprises absolute Reality, infinite Possibility and perfect Quality.
In Wisdom, as in Power and as in Goodness, there is in fact no contingency, no limitation, or any imperfection; being Absolute, these modes cannot not be, and being Infinite, they are inexhaustible; being Perfect, they lack nothing.
The Principle not only possesses "dimensions" and "modes”, it also has degrees, and this in virtue of its very Infinitude, which projects the Principle into Relativity and thus produces, so to speak, this metacosmic "space" which we term the Divine Order. These degrees are the divine Essence, the divine Potentiality and the divine Manifestations; or Beyond-Being, Being (the Creator) and the Spirit (the existentiating Logos) which constitutes the divine Center of the total cosmos.
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Frithjof Schuon
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Quoted in: The Essential Frithjof Schuon (edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr)
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Image: Virgin of the Burning Bush - Holy Icon
Para el grupo La Vuelta al Mundo en su tercer aniversario
{EXPLORE}
In the ancient Indian context, the number zero did not originally refer to nothingness or nullity. The Sanskrit word for zero is shunya, which means "puffed up, hollow, empty." The zero stands for emptiness suggestive of potentiality.
PLEASE CLICK L
The Etang de la Gruère Again. It's impossible to grow tired of this place and all the incredible potentialities it gives for photography.
Can you explain us the idea or the story behind this image?
This photography is part of an all B/W series called “Still life part VII”. It can remind the theory of shadows of descriptive geometry, or something similar made with a camera or a smartphone, in substitution of a x-ray, with bottles instead of solids. I made this still life thanks to the morning light of the sun, which I used as the only bright source. The potentialities of light allow me to accentuate all the contrasts. I chose to use a white bottle both to highlight contrasts with the shadows and create an effect of positive/negative with the black background. This image represents a middle ground between a strict geometrical synthesis and a constituent study
Tell us how it is taken from the most technical aspect.
I took this picture at 10am in the morning, when the sun was enough high to project the shadow of the bottle on the plan with the right grade, in a well defined way. I changed a bit the prospective by getting closer from to the bottom to the composition, thanks to wide angle.
What problems and challenges did you face when you took the shot of this image?
The most difficult thing to face was the speed of execution because of the sun, because it rotates rapidly, changing the conditions of light. We know well that we need time enough to focus every single detail of composition and light to make a good still life. Besides, I was conditioned by weather: if sun was covered, I could not work.
We are talking about the postproduction process. How do you get the final result?
I do my work in post-production with Adobe Photoshop. The first step was expanding the image, then I balanced the picture in a correct way, thanks to curves and other tools of Photoshop. Thanks to curves I also highlighted blacks and whites and this allowed me to obtain these contrasts in my picture.
“When we let ourselves shine, we eclipse the realms of ordinary. This light, this spiritual life-force, effortlessly radiates within us and to those around us, illuminating the potentiality of our soul's yearning--which is, in essence--the highest version of ourselves.”
― LaShaun Middlebrooks Collier
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Thanks a lot for visits and comments, everyone...!
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without
my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
Intuitive Forms should emerge from a concious consideration of the discovered environment, requirement and potentiality of the project
[...] within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social productiveness of labour are brought about at the cost of the individual labourer; all means for the development of production transform themselves into means of domination over, and exploitation of, the producers; they mutilate the labourer into a fragment of a man, degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine, destroy every remnant of charm in his work and turn it into a hated toil; they estrange from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process in the same proportion as science is incorporated in it as an independent power; they distort the conditions under which he works, subject him during the labour process to a despotism the more hateful for its meanness; they transform his life-time into working-time, and drag his wife and child beneath the wheels of the Juggernaut of capital. But all methods for the production of surplus-value are at the same time methods of accumulation; and every extension of accumulation becomes again a means for the development of those methods. It follows therefore that in proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse. The law, finally, that always equilibrates the relative surplus population, or industrial reserve army, to the extent and energy of accumulation, this law rivets the labourer to capital more firmly than the wedges of Vulcan did Prometheus to the rock. It establishes an accumulation of misery, corresponding with accumulation of capital. Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole, i.e., on the side of the class that produces its own product in the form of capital.
Karl Marx, Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production
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Danilo Dolci: Verso un mondo nuovo
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A story of Sicily: the Sicilian Gandhi (but he was not Sicilian ...).
This photographic story is connected, at least in part, with the previous one, whose link is represented by the nephew of the painter Robert Kitson, Miss Daphne Phelps: in life she was a psychiatric social worker (she collaborated with Anna Freud, daughter by Sigmund Freud), on the death of his uncle in 1948 he moved to Sicily to take care of Casa Cuseni, having inherited it: initially he wanted to sell it and then return to England, instead he ended up falling in love with Taormina and Sicily, deciding to stay there for the rest of his life. Daphne ran Casa Cuseni welcoming paying guests, there are many illustrious names of artists, writers, well-known personalities who have stayed there: Danilo Dolci was one of these guests, and it is precisely about him that I wish to speak. He was born in 1924 in Sesana (Trieste), after a somewhat eventful life, in 1952 he moved to Trappeto (between Palermo and Trapani), a country among the poorest and most disadvantaged in Italy: that same year the first of numerous fasts, going to bed and fasting in the bed of a child who died of malnutrition, a protest that will end only when the authorities undertake to build a sewer. Danilo Dolci continues with numerous initiatives, from the publication of a book ("Banditi a Partinico", which makes public opinion aware of the poor living conditions of western Sicily, to this book and many others will follow), to the "strike at reverses ”, when the workers went on strike, hundreds of unemployed began to work to reactivate an abandoned municipal road, an initiative that was then stopped by the police; Dolci also initiates an activity of denunciation of the mafia phenomenon and its relations with politics. There are numerous certificates of esteem and solidarity that he receives from important personalities from Italy and abroad, but despite this, for others Danilo Dolci is a dangerous subversive, to be hindered, denigrated, locked up in prison. Yet Dolci does not pose as a guru, boss, or teacher, his working method is based on the conviction that change is based on the involvement and direct participation of those concerned, his idea of progress enhances local culture and skills; he tries, working closely with the people and the most disadvantaged and oppressed groups of western Sicily, to free the dormant creativity in every person, calling this research "maieutic", a term coming from philosophy, precisely from Socratic maieutics: it is "the 'art of the midwife ", every educational act is to bring to light all the inner potentialities of the one who wants to learn, like a mother who wants to give birth to her own child from her womb, so no to notions imparted a priori, yes to help the student to bring their knowledge to light, using dialogue as a tool; however, Socratic maieutics is unidirectional, while in Danilo Dolci's "reciprocal maieutics", knowledge comes out of experience and its sharing, therefore it presupposes the reciprocity of communication. During meetings with farmers and fishermen, the idea was born to build the dam on the Jato River, which is important for the economic development of the area, but also to remove a powerful weapon in the hands of the mafia, an instrument of power which controlled the few available water resources; however the request for "water for all" will be heavily hindered, popular mobilizations and long fasts will be necessary to finally see the project realized: now the dam exists, and others have been built, thus modifying the lives of thousands of people, with the development of numerous companies and cooperatives. Among the many activities of Dolci, thanks to the contribution of international experts, the experience of the Mirto Educational Center, attended by hundreds of children, should be mentioned. Returning to Daphne Phelps and Casa Cuseni, here is a lithograph by Tono Zancanaro, dedicated to the birth of one of Danilo Dolci's daughters, but, among the most important, there is a correspondence between the pacifist philosopher Bertrand Russel and Daphne Phelps, in which the English thinker invited Robert Kitson's niece to participate in the gatherings of progressive intellectuals and literary and scientific personalities of the time, among them, besides Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Carlo Levi, there was Danilo Dolci, sociologist, educator, still recognized today as one of the most important figures of nonviolence worldwide.
post Scriptum:
- the images with Danilo Dolci come from the Casa Cuseni archive: they are cuttings from original periodicals, often full pages, from English newspapers, carefully preserved by Miss Daphne Phelp; these images were also taken by photographing some pages of James McNeish's book, "Fire under the ashes - The life of Danilo Dolci";
- the photographs taken in various countries of Sicily, are prior to the covid-19 pandemic;
- thanks to the surgeon colleague dr. Franco Spadaro and his kind wife, Mrs. Mimma Cundari, owners of Casa Cuseni (declared in 1998, Italian National Monument), for their hospitality and availability, having made the Danilo Dolci archive available to me.
Una storia di Sicilia: il Gandhi siciliano (ma siciliano non era…).
Questo racconto fotografico, è connesso, almeno in parte, con quello precedente, il cui anello di congiunzione è rappresentato dalla nipote del pittore Robert Kitson, la signorina Daphne Phelps: lei nella vita era una assistente sociale psichiatrica (lei collaborava con Anna Freud, figlia di Sigmund Freud), alla morte dello zio nel 1948 si trasferì in Sicilia per occuparsi di Casa Cuseni, avendola ereditata: inizialmente la voleva vendere per poi ritornarsene in Inghilterra, invece finì con l’innamorarsi di Taormina e della Sicilia, decidendo di restarvi per il resto della sua vita. Daphne gestiva Casa Cuseni accogliendo ospiti paganti, numerosi sono i nomi illustri di artisti, scrittori, note personalità che vi hanno alloggiato: Danilo Dolci è stato uno di questi ospiti, ed è proprio di lui che desidero parlare. Egli nasce nel 1924 a Sesana (Trieste), dopo una vita un po’ movimentata, nel 1952 si trasferisce a Trappeto (tra Palermo e Trapani), un paese tra i più poveri e disagiati d’Italia: quello stesso anno inizia il primo di numerosi digiuni, coricandosi e digiunando nel letto di un bimbo morto per denutrizione, protesta che terminerà solo quando le autorità si impegneranno a costruire una fogna. Danilo Dolci prosegue con numerose iniziative, dalla pubblicazione di un libro (“Banditi a Partinico”, che mette a conoscenza dell’opinione pubblica delle misere condizioni di vita della Sicilia occidentale, a questo libro poi ne seguiranno molti altri), allo “sciopero alla rovescia”, quando i lavoratori fecero sciopero, centinaia di disoccupati si misero a lavorare per riattivare una strada comunale abbandonata, iniziativa però poi fermata dalla polizia; Dolci avvia anche una attività di denuncia del fenomeno mafioso e dei suoi rapporti con la politica. Numerosi sono gli attestati di stima e solidarietà che egli riceve da importanti personalità provenienti dall’Italia e dall’estero, ma nonostante ciò per altri Danilo Dolci è un pericoloso sovversivo, da ostacolare, denigrare, chiudere in prigione. Eppure Dolci non si atteggia né a santone, capo, od un maestro, il suo metodo di lavoro è basato sulla convinzione che il cambiamento è basato sul coinvolgimento e diretta partecipazione degli interessati, la sua idea di progresso valorizza la cultura e le competenze locali; egli cerca, lavorando a stretto contatto con la gente e le fasce più disagiate ed oppresse della Sicilia occidentale, di liberare la creatività sopita in ogni persona, chiamando tale ricerca “maieutica”, termine proveniente dalla filosofia, precisamente dalla maieutica socratica: è “l’arte della levatrice”, ogni atto educativo è far venire alla luce tutte le potenzialità interiori di colui che vuole imparare, al pari di una madre che vuol far nascere la propria creatura dal suo grembo, quindi no a nozioni impartite a priori, si ad aiutare lo studente a portare alla luce la propria conoscenza, usando il dialogo come strumento; però, la maieutica socratica è unidirezionale, mentre nella “maieutica reciproca” di Danilo Dolci, la conoscenza viene fuori dall’esperienza e dalla sua condivisione, quindi presuppone la reciprocità della comunicazione. Nel corso di riunioni con contadini e pescatori, nasce l’idea di costruire la diga sul fiume Jato, importante per lo sviluppo economico della zona, ma anche togliere un’arma potente in mano alla mafia, che faceva del controllo delle poche risorse idriche disponibili uno strumento di potere, però la richiesta di “acqua per tutti” verrà pesantemente ostacolata, saranno necessarie le mobilitazioni popolari, lunghi digiuni, per vedere infine realizzato il progetto: ora la diga esiste, ed altre sono state poi realizzate, modificando in tal modo la vita di migliaia di persone, con lo svilupparsi di numerose aziende e cooperative. Da menzionare, tra le tante attività di Dolci, grazie al contributo di esperti internazionali, l’esperienza del Centro Educativo di Mirto, frequentato da centinaia di bambini. Ritornando a Daphne Phelps e Casa Cuseni, qui è presente una litografia di Tono Zancanaro, dedicata alla nascita di una delle figlie di Danilo Dolci, ma, cosa tra le più importanti, esiste un carteggio tra il filosofo pacifista Bertrand Russel e Daphne Phelps, nel quale il pensatore inglese invitava la nipote di Robert Kitson a partecipare ai raduni di intellettuali progressisti e personalità letterarie e scientifiche dell’epoca, tra di loro, oltre Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre e Carlo Levi, c’era Danilo Dolci, sociologo, educatore, ancora oggi riconosciuto tra le figure di massimo rilievo della nonviolenza a livello mondiale.
post scriptum:
- le immagini con Danilo Dolci provengono dall'archivio di Casa Cuseni: sono ritagli di giornali originali dell'epoca, spesso pagine intere, provenienti da quotidiani inglesi, accuratamente conservati dalla signorina Daphne Phelp; tali immagini sono state realizzate fotografando anche alcune pagine del libro di James McNeish, "Fire under the ashes - The life of Danilo Dolci";
- le fotografie realizzate in diversi paesi della Sicilia, sono antecedenti alla pandemia da covid-19;
- si ringrazia il collega chirurgo dott. Franco Spadaro e la sua gentile consorte, signora Mimma Cundari, proprietari di Casa Cuseni (dichiarata nel 1998, Monumento Nazionale Italiano), per la loro ospitalità e disponibilità, avendo messo a mia disposizione l'archivio relativo a Danilo Dolci.