Self Exploration Through Portraits
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Its getting really hard now to do my 365. For allot of reasons the first is the oldest problem I've been having and that’s really to stay creative and produce a really good photo on a daily basis isn’t easy! Especially when I'm in my apartment shooting all the time. I know I have to start venturing outside but its SOO hard for me if one person walks by where ever I choose to go that’s it I'm running back to my car and getting an anxiety attack.(well you know…a panic).
The other reasons are the stress I'm in lately with my life still being just a bit stuck on the one hand and the stress about my life actually starting to roll abit further and of course being annoyed with myself for being stressed in the first place when good things are apparently happening. So you see very confusing it's just all NEW!! And new makes me very uncomfortable. All this self exploration and self shooting and self involvement also gets just a bit much at some point.
I finally started writing what I need for the magazine which is good. Its funny with writing how it gets you to relive so many things but its so good to be telling the story and being after that terrible depression and terrible resistance! I was resisting everything and that’s why I kept knocking my self into the wall I still am resistant to a lot of things but I am trying to change my ways and accept a lot more if its people that come or situations that present themselves that I need to deal with or decide what im doing about them im really trying to always do and see things from a new angle and not my automatic resistant 'I hate my life and humanity!' angle…
Ventspils Science Centre VIZIUM is to educate children and youth about STEM science, mathematics technology, engineering and using exhibitions, workshops and science shows. creative
VIZIUM is like a future city, where more than 80 interactive and educational exhibits, including creative workshops and science shows, offer to learn science and find out about such topics as physics and mathematics, modern technology and programming, healthy lifestyle, human and self-exploration, geography etc.
At VIZIUM, everyone can step into the shoes of a football player, shooter and snowboarder, experience the force of earthquake, escape from a virtual maze, try on virtual traditional costumes, go on a roller coaster ride, draw in the virtual reality and a lot more! VIZIUM also offers visiting technical creative workshops and science shows which will provide added value to the visit of the Science Centre.
Whereas visitors of pre-school age have a chance to play at the Little Explorers Gallery, where everyone can do shopping at a grocery store and refuel using own game bank cardes well as to become little constructors and with water attraction!
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If there is any secret to this life I live, this is it: the sound of what cannot be seen sings within everything that can. And there is nothing more to it than that.
-Brian Andreas, Story People
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So, this is it: the final photo of my year long self exploration in front of and behind the lens of my camera. I want to thank you all for staying tuned to my channel and for all the encouraging words and the often humorous comments. I'm so grateful to have made such great Flickr friends through it all.
What started out as a way to help me become more comfortable with my self image really became more about the person I have learned to be. What I have discovered is that in order to become more comfortable with what is on the outside, one has to acknowledge and accept what is what on the inside and how it relates to the world around us. Only then can we all be truly Beautiful people :)
Mitakon Speedmaster manual lens at F4; edited in Fujifilm's raw converter and refined in Luminar. One daylight LED lamp and two LED spotlights. Part of my attempts at self-exploration or visual autobiography.
Bell Rock, Sedona, Arizona. One of the vortex locations in the area, where there is thought to be swirling centers of energy that are conducive to healing, meditation and self-exploration. These are places where the earth seems especially alive with energy. Many people feel inspired, recharged or uplifted after visiting a vortex.
Okay, so I'm vain! I really can only stand so much of myself without a bit of retouching or cosmetics, so this has been tweaked a bit! I'll add the original if I can bear it, lol!
Recent work from the ongoing Introspective Illumination project. My intent for this project is to explore themes of identity and mortality. I aim to explore how our identity is influenced by the spaces we inhabit and our connection to them. Additionally, I want to engage with existential questions about existence, impermanence, and the passage of time. By closely observing and collaborating with the spaces I inhabit—considering their colors, light, form, and texture—I create starting points for self-exploration, reflection, and deeper understanding.
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Hoy es el día... siempre que uno siente que ha fallado en un reto la única solución es intentarlo de nuevo. El 365 es un reto de auto-exploración, pero conocerse no siempre requiere mirarse en el espejo.
Hoy comienzo de nuevo... desde 0. No retomo el pasado, intento mejorar mi futuro. Espero poder mostrar cada día de este año al menos una imagen de lo que es mi día a día. Con Misa(canon) o con Lil(milestone) o con cualquier cosa que se atraviese... no hay reglas más que la constancia de abrir la ventana una vez al día... empecemos pues.
Si quieres seguir mi 2do intento de este 365, visita tatadbb.tumblr.com
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Today is the day ... whenever you feel that you has failed on a challenge the only solution is to try again. The 365 is a challenge of self-exploration, but knowing yourself does not always requires to look at you in the mirror.
Today I start again... from 0. I won't retake the past, I will try to improve my future. I hope to show every day this year at least one image of what my daily routine is. With Misa(canon) or Lil(milestone) or anything that I have... no rules beside open the window once a day... lets start then.
If you want to keep updated with my 2nd attempt at this 365, visit tatadbb.tumblr.com
Bell Rock, Sedona, Arizona. One of the vortex locations in the area, where there is thought to be swirling centers of energy that are conducive to healing, meditation and self-exploration. These are places where the earth seems especially alive with energy. Many people feel inspired, recharged or uplifted after visiting a vortex.
'It was a great exercise in self exploration, and discipline. But now... I want take the pictures, I want to take. I'm happy to let go of that disciplined control, to give way to more base instincts. There's a raw truth in that, the type of truth in life that sets you free'
'Then be free' she said. 'The cage door is open. Its always been open.'
The Giant Silverfish is wearing a faded taupe ‘Okinawa Silk’ coat with removable embossed silk ‘Cowled Collar and Frontispiece’ with pearlescent buttons of ebony with red coral details. He is wearing a one-way transparent silk mask, with additional ‘feelers’, and matching gloves. The cowl is lined with scarlet silk, also from Okinawa.
This ‘cross species’ ensemble, which can be adjusted to fit all body shapes and aspirations, is an example of our 2024 season ‘Universal Equality’ range.
It should be stated that these images are 'temporary', that is that they have been generated whilst waiting for ChaCha to emerge from his arduous meditative "self-exploration". The shoes, specifically designed as part of this ensemble, are not included in this image, and will be unveiled on the 'Catwalk' in the Spring, and in the upcoming worldwide magazine campaign.
Meanwhile we wait in anticipation of ChaCha's chrysalis-like emergence, with all his chakras aligned.
Photographed on location in 'Drimnagh Castle'.
*366 photos for the 20's 01/03*
this year I will try to choose one photo a day for this pseudo-project, no matter the motive, style, colour or technique. encouraging myself to shoot everyday, even if I can't go outside.
Self-portrait playing with light from a lamp and the traffic lights coming through my blinds in the background.
Sometimes life is about self-exploration especially when one is going through a time of transition and change. I have been trying to decide what's up with the random self-portraits I've been doing since they are not particularly about being vain or showing off (which secretly I felt insecure about everytime I posted them). They are partly because life is busy, and in the evening when I finally get home there are only so many photography subject to take photos of. However, I am realizing after some self-reflection that they are about trying to re-learn who I am as just me. So here's one with hair a mess and no make-up. No smile because it's about looking looking backward, and self-reflecting for better or worse. This one is just me.
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Inspired by many fantastic self-portrait artists seen on flickr... My continuing attempt on using tripod-remote photography for artistic self exploration~~ I started shooting with something totally different in mind, but I liked how it eventually turned out... original photos were taken under natural window light and some ceiling light indoors, and the image quality was not very good, the shadows are quite grainy with no details in the dark hair areas and highlights were blown-out and turned grey-ish with excessive highlight recovery in post-processing. This situation probably calls for HDR ... I still need to shoot more and improve my photography skills..
PRESS L
Find yourself
Experimenting with x-rays and overlays.
Many people go through life skimming the surface of their identities. They don’t truly dig deeply into their thoughts, feelings, desires and dreams. It may be hard to make time to examine our inner self, but it can be some of the most rewarding work we ever do. Self-exploration involves taking a look at your own thoughts, feelings, behaviors and motivations and asking why. Having a deeper understanding of ourselves has many benefits. It can help people understand and accept who they are and why they do what they do. There's an incredible amount of information that’s just waiting to be explored, so what are you waiting for?
I started working at a dental office about a month ago and I've been lazy about going out to shoot. I have every weekend off, but I've been lacking inspiration and motivation. While working at the dental office, I've seen dozens of x-rays and couldn't help but use one for this. That's about all I've been inspired by lately. I've come up with a few ideas for religious themed photos, but I doubt I'll be able to execute them anytime soon. I need half a dozen bald/bearded men, a few women, a cathedral, and a lot of renaissance clothing. Anyone know where I could find these things in Georgia? Anyway, it feels good to be uploading another selfie. I'll try not to wait too long before my next upload! A critique would be great!
The last five photos I've posted (including this one) have been explored!
I must be doing something right. :)
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Self exploration post loss.
Double exposures on cross processed 35mm Kodak ektachrome e100.
August, 2019. Portland, Oregon.
Yikes! I'm starting to see things that weren't there a couple of years ago...wrinkles, crow's feet, grey hair....The aging process. Gotta love it. NOT!!!
"The Yellow Manifesto" is an evocative installation and performance piece that delves into the complexities of individuality and collective identity through the powerful symbolism of colour. In this work, the performers immerse themselves in vibrant yellow, embodying the hue as a unifying yet distinctly individual statement. The act of covering oneself in paint becomes a ritual of transformation, challenging societal norms and personal boundaries.
Yellow, a colour often associated with warmth, energy, and visibility, serves as both a mask and a revelation. It obscures the unique features of each participant, creating a visual uniformity, yet simultaneously amplifies their presence within the space. This duality invites viewers to question the nature of identity: how it is constructed, perceived, and expressed.
The performance unfolds in a stark, white-walled room, where the interaction between the performers and their environment is both chaotic and deliberate. The splashes and smears of paint become a dynamic canvas, capturing moments of motion and stillness, order and disorder. Each participant’s interaction with the paint and space creates a narrative of self-exploration and collective resonance.
Midjourney, Photoshop
today I spent a quiet hour in the gallery of our art club to take a close look at the work of my friends. it has been a rewarding experience.
photography is exploring one's ability with the unlimited possibilities of surrounding elements... quote me:P
Sometimes we get caught up in so many parts of life that we don't know which path to follow, which task to prioritise or what we really want to do.
The Web is my interpretation of a life spider diagram, we have to take things one step at a time and accept failure is just as much a part of life as success is. But through self exploration and by taking chances we can work out what we want to achieve and then make that happen.
Thank you all for looking, Hope you're having a good weekend :)
Self exploration post loss.
Double exposures on cross processed 35mm Kodak ektachrome e100.
August, 2019. Portland, Oregon.
Words inspire me to look within myself to be a better person.
Sandy Kelly
Nevada, Texas
Self-exploration
A portrait series exploring the feeling of dysphoria. Disconnection between the self and the reflection, between presence and perception.
Photos by MoudBarthez.
Model's ig: @Maariaaan. Helsinki, Winter 2025.
This one again plays with the idea of nature being a healing, and indeed, restorative, place to be; a theme often used in fairy tales. I've got another deep-in-the-woods shoot today which I'm quite looking forward to :)
Model: Aly Darling.
Want to be part of my new online photography course, which uses photography as a tool for self exploration? Read about it on my blog, or see my site. It's going to be a really amazing journey and I hope everyone can be a part of it!
*** Vote For Me, no registration needed :) ***
This is image a part of my "Reluctant narcissism" series. Modeling almost always has some level of narcissism involved. But virtually all the models I know are also quite self-conscious (or even self-critical) at the same time. This duality is what this series of images is about. Personally, I see modeling for camera as a sort of self-exploration of the models, I believe it helps the models understand themselves better. I, of course, don't mean strictly commercial modeling, but art/portrait modeling specifically. During my shoots I give a lot of freedom to my models as far as moving and self-expression is concerned, and view the creation of an art image as a sort of an improvised dance between the model and the photographer. Sometimes I lead the model, sometimes I let the model lead me. It takes two to tango. Model - Julia C. I post more images on Instagram than on Facebook: ift.tt/1Jmjkzz Now booking 2016 photography sessions in Atlanta, Dallas, and Miami. For rates and scheduling eremine@gmail.com EXIF info for those who care about such things: ISO800, f2.8, 75mm, 1/125 sec ift.tt/1Uz3zrQ www.maxeremine.com
89:365
Yesterday was a challenging day and not a favorite.
It made me think about what kind of picture I was going to post and that, in turn, made me think of all the complexities of real life vs self image vs online image.
That's one of the interesting things about doing a 365. It makes you think. On the surface, it seems silly, frivolous and narcissistic but in reality, it goes much deeper.
I believe doing a 365 encourages self awareness and self exploration. And for me, since my 365 is about my journey to turning 50 next year, it's about self acceptance and embracing all that is me....grey hairs, wrinkles and all.
So, for today, we are focusing on the positive. And right now, that's all the fun I'm having with my new phone which I LOVE. I haven't even picked up my regular camera since I got it.
Now, the iPhone 7+ isn't QUITE as good as my little Fuji but it's darn close.
If I want to do some really close-up macros, i have to use the Fuji as it allows me to get within millimeters of the subject and have manual focus control but, for everything else, the 7+ is fab!
BTW, this shot is SOOC...straight out of the camera (phone) with no processing but adding my watermark. I also left it large for those interested in inspecting the quality a bit further.
It was shot in the review mirror of my car this morning.
=]
I left to uncover the meaning of life, hide my emotions under the surface, trying to pretend, through the process I've died twice, been revived, faced the truth, been reborn in the forest and come to terms with my trueself, each day add to the journey of self exploration.
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It was one of those existential cries to the Universe asking for some kind of sign to be shown that I would know who I am and why I was living my life…to do what? I was up in the air, flying to Europe and feverishly writing in my journal as thick salty tears poured from my eyes onto my notebook. It was a time in my life when I had to let go over and over. These were the years of grieving the loss of my husband, changes in my work and feeling tremendous tension around the next part of my life. As words poured out on the page, I distinctly remember challenging the Great Unknown to prove to me that I’m not deluding myself on my journey of constant self-exploration and that we are indeed connected to every point in space. I wanted proof in that moment so desperately. When I was done,
I closed the notebook and slipped it into the pocket of the seat in front of me. I sat back as the light in the cabin was dimming and a large movie screen descended slowly. Those were the days before the personal digital devices so everybody watched the same film. I settled back in my chair and started to relax. Usually there was a short featurette of some kind to warm up the audience and my heart skipped a beat when I heard what it was about. The pleasant rolling voice of a woman spoke as the camera focussed on a beautiful elephant being prepared for a sacred ceremony. The voice said:
“Today we will take you to India to meet a special elephant named “Prem”. He is being prepared for a ceremony to celebrate the Goddess Ganga and to take a dip in the river of the same name. Who is Ganga and what does she stand for? We will explore this in the following film.”
Cue Twilight Zone theme.
Prem means Love in Sanskrit. The elephant was an embodiment of Love itself. Love has its own profound Intelligence and leads us to unknown heights. In a time of a world pandemic and massive unrest, each of us is never alone. When we cry out to the Great Mystery and we deeply listen, an answer comes like a still small voice and in some rare cases even a whole movie.
I wish you courage and strength friends xxxooo
vulnerable: final photography series
This series, which began as a project about ‘fear’ evolved into self-exploration. Taking self portraits on the campus, I made a familiar place strange and evoked the frustrating feelings I can experience. Shooting in empty hallways, corners where walls meet, and on glossy floors, I segmented my body with light and used both distorted reflections and shadows to illustrate loneliness, anxiety, and the struggle with self image. Inspired by the idea of ‘all dressed up with nowhere to go’ I created a dialogue between my attire and the lack of any sort of formal event. Although my work often has a distance with its subjects, many photos in this project required intimacy. I also played with awkward compositions to further emphasize the discomfort in my gesture and expression. Though the project is personal it can hopefully be universal; viewers can relate to its notions of self-acceptance, and ultimately, vulnerability.
shot on Ilford HP5, handprinted 11x14 on glossy fiber paper
"Until He Loves Me"
Photo: Reylia Slaby
Model: Kanako Uchihata
The idea for this particular image entered my head sometime in the middle of last year, although I am surprised that it hadn't come sooner. I say this, mostly because there is one aspect to my personality that I have been incredibly aware of since I was a little girl, and it has stayed with me steadfast and constant until today.
This trait of mine extends not only to the romantic of course—although it is more strongly emphasised in that area of life—but is also deeply intertwined with each aspect of myself, from the larger areas such as art making, to the lesser respectable areas such as how I think and feel when inebriated.
I feel that this trait, can most easily be described as a quiet but unfaltering obsessiveness. It can have both positive and negative effects on me, leaving me both restless and excited. It is this obsessiveness that has, I believe, assisted me in growing in art, but has also pushed me down, often leaving me in a miserable puddle of self consciousness, fear, and self-doubt. Learning to take the reins of this idiosyncrasy is not a recent development, but learning to embrace it is. So this image for me has been an aid in that area of self-exploration. Hopefully it won't be misunderstood as a focus on being obsessed with someone, rather as a question as to why those feelings arise, where they stem from, and how we can harvest them and use them for good in our lives. Hopefully we all can find it.
Always,
Reylia
[A big thank you to my wonderful model. You are a beautiful person, both inside and out.]
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Ok. So today apparently I was in the mood for something quite surreal again. I think I have two personalities sometimes. Sometimes I'm the raw documentary photographer and then other times I'm like the surreal photoshop photographer which I have no idea why because I'm not really that good at it. It's just one of those experimental things.
I think when I'm feeling more vulnerable this is the sort of thing I do. It's like moving away from reality. Creating my dream world where I can hide. Maybe. Who knows. Your guess is as good as mine. That's why I do photography. It's a journey of self exploration.
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Vincent William van Gough a famous Dutch artist whose work often associated with Post-Impressionism and later transformed in to Expressionism. Vincent Van Gogh was one of the most important predecessors of modern painting. He created a great number of masterpiece paintings and drawings in just one decade devoted to art.
I know for sure that I have an instinct for colour, and that it will come to me more and more, that painting is in the very marrow of my bones.” A brief look at some historical examples of artistic geniuses and it is tempting to believe that there is something approaching madness in the creative spirit.
The artistic impulse permeates throughout history: from the “primitive” cave art of the Upper Palaeolithic through to the introduction of perspective and foreshortening during the Renaissance, rules which would later be subverted beyond recognition by the artists of modernity, who sought to express new ways of seeing and ushered in an era of visual experimentation. Either as creators or consumers, art remains ever-present in the modern world, both a vehicle for expressing our innermost thoughts and desires and a medium through which we can escape into new realities and emotions.
What is it that leads us to create art? Is there a psychological drive at work, a subconscious force which simmers away beneath the surface before emerging in an explosion of creativity? Is there an innermost essence to this process, something which embodies our propensity to express ourselves through art?
A brief look at some historical examples of artistic geniuses and it is tempting to believe that there is something approaching madness in the creative spirit; that art is intrinsically bound with insanity, great works of art functioning as a cathartic mechanism – something which both purges and purifies the spirit – without which the artist would be confined to the asylum. The fascination of the link between mental illness and creativity emerged in the late 19th century and remains with us to this day, where heightened creativity can be seen to correlate with states of mind such as hypomania – a state of mind today most commonly associated with bipolar disorder – where inspiration emerges from the fluctuations between euphoria and depression.
The Artist as an Outsider
Vincent van Gogh is perhaps the most celebrated example of the “mad artistic genius”, a man who was frequently cited by art historians as suffering from manic depression and who revealed through his letters to have questioned his own sanity. In and out of institutions for much of his adult life, the root cause of van Gogh’s mental state has been hotly debated, with porphyria, schizophrenia, tertiary syphilis, lead poisoning and addiction to absinthe among the possible explanations (Manet, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec were among other artists with a fondness for absinthe, as were a number of writers during the late 19th century. German poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote, “He saw his glass of absinthe grow and grow until he felt himself in the centre of its opal light, weightless, completely dissolved in this strange atmosphere.” There is something to be said for the role played by mind-altering drugs in promoting the drive to create art).
Whatever the causes of van Gogh’s mental state, his work seems to reflect a fluctuation between normality and insanity, as if the swirls of colour function as a measure of his grip on reality. Van Gogh said himself, “It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill – it’s a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I’m all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I’ll always remain half crazy.” He would eventually end his life by shooting himself in the chest in the field where he had recently painted Wheatfield with Crows, an image which seemed to presage his suicide.
Psychologist Carl Jung considered the psychological roots of artistic creation in the modern world in a number of essays and lectures collected in the book, The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature. How did we progress from our primitive state, in which Jung perceived art, science and religion coalescing in “the undifferentiated chaos of the magical mentality” to the cultural and artistic climate familiar in the modern world? In what manner does art – and its symbolic content – reflect the seemingly tumultuous psychological nature of the artist? Can the art be used to decode the artist?
The Creative Impulse
Jung believed that art itself had no inherent meaning, suggesting that perhaps it is like nature – something that simply “is”. But the creative process was something distinct, and Jung posited that works of art could be seen to arise out of much the same psychological conditions as a neurosis. Like all neuroses these conscious contents have an unconscious background which in their artistic manifestation often go beyond the individual and into something deeper and more broadly reflective of humankind. Jung offered the analogy that “personal causes have as much or as little to do with a work of art as the soil with the plant that springs from it.” True art is something “supra-personal”, a force which has “escaped from the limitations of the personal and has soared beyond the personal concerns of its creator.”
Jung concedes that not all art originates in this manner – art can derive from a deliberate process of conscious, careful consideration geared towards a specific expression in which the artist is at one with the creative process. But for Jung, fascination lay in the artist who obeyed alien impulses where the work appears to impose itself on the author; an external force wielding the artist like a marionette. This is the creative impulse, acting upon the conscious mind from a subconscious level – it guides the artist in a way which they cannot understand, regardless of the conviction they may have that it has originated within themselves.
For great artists, this impulse can be all-consuming. As Jung rightly observes, “The biographies of great artists make it abundantly clear that the creative urge is often so imperious that it battens onto their humanity and yokes everything to the service of the work, even at the cost of ordinary health and human happiness”. The biographies of the likes of Beethoven, Marcel Proust and many others are a testament to the creative process as “a living thing implanted in the human psyche.”
For Beethoven, composing was a compulsion, as his prodigious output testifies – indeed, gripped in the vice of depression later in life, not least on account of his profound deafness, his work arguably reaching its zenith with the sublime late string quartets. Proust too felt irresistibly compelled to write – consigned to his bed on account of increasing illness, he worked tirelessly for several years on his opus In Search of Lost Time, a labyrinthine novel which tackles the nebulous quality of memory and love and the absurdity of human nature; a dense yet hugely rewarding product of tireless obsession.
Speaking With A Thousand Voices
Jung believed that the autonomous nature of the creative impulse as something that operates outside of consciousness is reflected in the symbolic nature of art. Symbols are expressions of the unknown, intimating something beyond our powers of comprehension. Jung believed these were deeply rooted in history; primordial images from a sphere of unconscious mythology. The creative drive works on the artist so that these images are withdrawn from the collective unconscious and presents us with archetypal symbols. For Jung this was a truly powerful psychological phenomenon: “Whoever speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices; he enthrals and overpowers, while at the same time he lifts the idea he is seeking to express out of the occasional and the transitory into the realm of the ever-enduring.”
Ultimately, Jung saw this process as one of great social significance, where conjured primordial images were “constantly at work educating the spirit of the age.” Visionary works of artistic expression become something transcendental, linking the unconscious and conscious, past and present. It is a force which operates beyond the rational and approaches the sublime and timeless – art which offers us “a revelation whose heights and depths are beyond our fathoming, or a vision of beauty which we can never put into words.”
Art, too, was a powerful tool for the individual to understand the nature of his or her subconsciousness. Jung frequently integrated it into his process of analytical psychology, encouraging his patients to draw and paint their dreams and use active imagination in which image and meaning were integrated, in order to unlock the symbolism at its core and come to terms with trauma and emotional distress. Jung was an artist himself and spent much of his life attempting to unify his understanding of spiritual and esoteric traditions – particularly Christianity, Gnosticism and alchemy – and his own unconscious into paintings and illustrations. While art and creativity as a method of therapy pre-date the work of Jung (indeed, they reside in the distant past of our shamanic origins), his contribution to function of art as therapy in the modern age is indisputable.
The art historian John E. Pfieffer said of hunter-gatherer cave art in his book The Creative Explosion:
“Nothing in the twentieth century can match the Upper Palaeolithic for its combination of art and setting, content and context. Nowhere in our lives are there comparable concentrations of modern art with a purpose, art in action, as contrasted with passive art hung in out-of-the-mainstream places designed solely for exhibition. The works in caves speak together, individual styles but with an underlying unity, singing in unison like a chorus of individual voices expressing collective feelings, collective goals. That is their special power.”
In this sense, contemporary art cannot truly be measured alongside art from the past – it resides in a different era, inspired by and reflecting the spirit of the times. If shamanic cave art can be seen to represent the emergence of a new type of consciousness in humanity intimately tied to the birth of spirituality, art today can be viewed as a coalescence of all that has come since and is yet to come. Or, as Jung expressed it: “All art intuitively apprehends coming changes in the collective unconsciousness.”
That is both the beauty of art, and the power of the artist.
Van Gogh used color for its “symbolic and expressive values” rather than to reproduce light and literal surroundings. Van Gogh’s emotional state highly affected his artistic work and it deeply analyses his unconscious mind.
Several psychodynamic factors may have contributed to his art work. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud viewed art as a privileged form of neurosis where the analyst-critic explores the artwork in order to understand and unearth the vicissitudes of the creator's psychological motivations. In this context van Gough’s art represent a deep psychological sketch. He left a profound, soul-searching description of his jagged life in his art work. Though Van Gogh had little financial success as an artist during his lifetime and often lived in poverty, his fame grew dramatically after his death. Today van Gough’s name is considered to be one of the world’s most renowned, respected, and influential artists. But he could not live long enough to see his fame. His life was filled with misery and desolation and this suffering was painted in an artistic way. The tragic life of Vincent van Gogh could be summarized emphasizing his early departure from formal education, failure as a successful salesman in the art world, attempt at religious studies, difficulty with female and family relationships, return to the art world, and tendencies toward extremes of poor nutrition or near self-starvation and excessive drinking and smoking. His oil painting” the Potato Eaters” clandestinely depicts poverty and destitute experienced by the artist. Van Gogh suffered from complex psychiatric ailments. Apart from the illness excessive use of tobacco and alcohol made a negative impact on his mental health. The mental illness that plagued him affected his art work. Van Gough painted his anguish and despair on canvas. His brushwork became increasingly agitated. The striking colors, crude brush strokes, and distorted shapes and contours, express his disturbed mind. He suffered two distinct episodes of reactive depression, and there are clearly bipolar aspects to his history. Both episodes of depression were followed by sustained periods of increasingly high energy and enthusiasm.z_p29-Psychological-03.jpg
Van Gogh's inimitable art was defined by its powerful, dramatic and emotional style. The artist’s concern for human suffering is in somber, melancholy study of art. Maybe he tried to explain the struggle between the man and the human nature, the reality and his unconscious mental conflicts. Van Gogh once said: “We spend our whole lives in unconscious exercise of the art of expressing our thoughts with the help of words.” His life was full of mental conflicts. He fought with his inner mind. This dual nature was observable. He had attacks of melancholy and of atrocious remorse. His colors lost the intensity His lines became restless. He applied the paint more violently with thicker layers. Van Gogh was drawn to objects in nature under stress: whirling suns, twisted cypress trees, and surging mountains. Although van Gogh’s illness emerged more violently he produced brilliant works as The Reaper, Cypresses, The Red Vineyard, and his famed Starry Night.
In Starry Night (1889) the whole world seems engulfed by circular movements. The Starry Night is undoubtedly van Gogh’s most mysterious picture. The Starry Night which resides as his most popular work and one of the most influence pieces in history. The swirling lines of the sky are a possible representation of his mental state. The Starry Night embodies an inner, subjective expression of van Gogh's response to nature. Vincent van Gogh once said “Looking at the stars always makes me dream. We take death to reach a star.”
From the beginning of Van Gogh's artistic career he had the ambition to draw and paint figures. For Vincent van Gogh color was the chief symbol of expression. Contemporary artists admired van Gogh’s passionate approach to art. But he viewed his life as horribly wasted, personally failed and impossible. On the contrary he was able to produce deeply moving images while living a life of ultimate desperation in an increasing state of mental imbalance. He was friendly with the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin and two friends inspired each other. However they frequently quarreled. Van Gogh had an eccentric personality and unstable moods. His reactive depression episodes were followed by a prolonged period of hypomanic or even manic behavior. The life and artistic legacy of Vincent van Gogh has generated great interest among physicians from different areas of specialization in proposing a retrospective differential diagnosis. Vincent Van Gough suffered from medical crises that were devastating, but in the intervening periods he was both lucid and creative. Vincent van Gogh's illness has been the object of much speculation. Explanations as disparate as acute intermittent porphyria, epilepsy and schizophrenia have been proposed. Some experts suspect physical and psychiatric symptoms of Vincent van Gogh may have been due to chronic lead poisoning. According to Arnold (2004) an inherited metabolic disease, acute intermittent porphyria, accounts for all of the signs and symptoms of van Gogh's underlying illness. Porphyria is a rare hereditary disease in which the blood pigment hemoglobin is abnormally metabolized. Porphyrins are excreted in the urine, which becomes dark; other symptoms include mental disturbances and extreme sensitivity of the skin to light. Van Gogh probably suffered from partial complex seizures (temporal lobe epilepsy) with manic depressive mood swings aggravated by absinthe, brandy, nicotine and turpentine. In addition he was troubled by intense death wish. Suicidal gestures by Vincent depicted in his last paintings. He painted vast fields of wheat under dark and stormy skies, commenting, “It is not difficult to express here my entire sadness and extreme loneliness”. In one of his last paintings, Wheat Field With Crows, the black birds fly in a starless sky, and three paths lead nowhere. It could be interpreted as the emptiness that existed in his heart. Mehlum (1996) believes that an early childhood trauma initiated a life-long suicidal process in Van Gogh. His difficulties as regards attachment to and separation from his parents continued throughout his life and his emotional instability, intensity and lowered tolerance to frustration seem to portray a borderline personality. Van Gogh's self-portraits play significant clinical importance. Vincent van Gogh was born one year to the day after a stillborn brother of the identical name, including the middle name, Willem. In the parish register van Gogh was given the same number twenty-nine as his predecessor brother. Van Gogh's fantasies of death and rebirth, of being a double and a twin, contributed to both his psychopathology and his creativity. Van Gogh's self-portraits are regarded as relevant to his being a replacement child (Blum, 2009). Meissner (1993) hypothesized that the self-portraits of Vincent van Gogh are seen as repeated and unresolved efforts at self-exploration and self-definition in an attempt to add a sense of continuity and cohesion to a fragile and fragmented self-experience. The portraits are painted in mirror perspective; Vincent's search for identity is thus seen as mediated by the dynamics of the mirroring phenomenon.
Auto-mutilation became a part of his medical history. In 1888 Vincent’s mental health was very unstable. As a result of psychotic crises, Vincent van Gogh was hospitalized several times. His state of mind was very weak and during a breakdown, he mutilated his ear. Van Gogh cut off the lower half of his left ear and gave it to a prostitute. After a few weeks he was able to paint self-portrait with bandaged ear and pipe (Portrait of a one-eyed man) which shows him in serene composure. During the last few years of his life, his paintings were characterized by halos and the color yellow. Critics have ascribed these aberrations to innumerable causes, including chronic solar injury, glaucoma, and cataracts (Lee, 1981).
Vincent van Gogh's chronic suicidal ideation and behaviour led to a series of crises throughout his life, escalating during the last 18 months before his suicide in 1890. It is possible to identify at least three prominent suicidal motives in van Gogh's case. The first is unbearable emotional pain related to personal experience of loss which reactivated the childhood trauma. The second is introverted murderous rage arising from conflicts with other persons. The third motive described is the need for a cathartic release of energy and emotion (Mehlum, 1996).
Pezenhoffer and Gerevich (2015) found distal suicide risk factors in Vincent van Gogh. They highlighted: family anamnesis, childhood traumas (emotional deprivation, identity problems associated with the name Vincent), a vagrant, homeless way of life, and failures in relationships with women, and psychotic episodes appearing in rushes. In addition the proximal factors included the tragic friendship with Gauguin (frustrated love), his brother Theo's marriage (experienced as a loss), and a tendency to self-destruction and this trait aggression played an important role in Van Gogh's suicide.
Vincent van Gogh committed suicide in 1890 at the age of 37. Despite the mental illness he suffered Vincent remained marvelously creative until his death. Although he lived a relatively short period he left behind an astonishing body of work which included several hundred paintings.
Van Gogh's painting not only reflected his struggles but also enabled him, for a time, to stave off the hopelessness and despair that eventually overwhelmed him, culminating in his suicide. Despite his turbulent life Van Gogh remains as one of Europe's greatest artists. Vincent Van Gogh is the subject of psychologists, artists, and historians alike. His life was led with a furious passion which normal men could not begin to comprehend; and it is through his paintings that we can look into Van Gogh’s mind and soul to analyze this enigmatic figure.
Of all of his paintings there are two that stand out as a shining example of the multitude of feelings and personalities that Vincent possessed, these paintings allow us psychoanalytic interpretations of the motives behind the pieces.The two paintings are none other than The Potato Eaters from Vincent’s Neuen Period and The Night Cafe from Vincent’s stay in Arles while with Paul Gaughin.Each offers a different insight to Vincent’s psyche from his emotions towards his parents to how he fell about his friends and himself as a painter.The first of the aforementioned paintings, The Potato Eaters, is a great example of a work by Vincent which features personal identification with one of the figures where we can garner insight to his thought processes and emotions.The Potato Eaters was painted during the Neuen period, a time in which Vincent was painting the hard, dreary lives of peasants and the destitute.At a glance we can see the painting as nothing more than a very poignant and hard hitting representation of the hard life of the working class.Potatoes were a staple, easy to grow food introduced by the Americas and because of its cheap price and nigh nutritional value, it became the centerpiece of any lower class meal.The scene depicts five peasants sitting at a table eating potato stew one of which is turned away from the viewer but is illuminated by the steam of the stew to place her as the point of interest in the piece.
When digging a little deeper into the piece we find that the painting has remarkable similarities in relation to the early stages of Vincent’s life.The child in the foreground whom is illuminated by the halo of steam can be seen as a religious figure by reasoning that Vincent who was familiar with the Bible and Christian influence paintings would have known that halos around humans signified some sort of religious importance.We find that “the lamp [in the painting] becomes a Holy Spirit as the insistent orthogonals of the roof beamsâ€[1] point towards the lamp giving it even more prominence in the picture.Even beyond the eerie religious overtones which would have come from the influence of his minister father, we find more personal identifications in the painting.The hidden child in the foreground becomes a symbol for the dead Vincent whom Van Gogh would have placed the ideals of perfection upon.The child cannot face the viewer because the child is dead (in spirit) and this is reinforced by the woman on the right who stares at the child intensely while pointing down towards the grave. Our attention is now on the woman to the far right who is a representation of Vincent’s mother who spent the majority of Van Gogh’s childhood mourning the death of the first Vincent instead of giving tender love to Van Gogh.What is interesting is that not only does she cast her view away from the manin the center who is trying to get her attention, she takes her gaze away from you (the viewer) and places all of her attention on the child with its back to us.The man trying to get her attention has some of Van Gogh’s features and serves as a representation of the emotional state of his childhood and a large portion of his life.The man tries to garner the attention of the woman but finds that no matter how hard he tries, his efforts are ignored as the woman pays more attention to the illuminated child; this in turn fills the expression of the young man with surprise and despair.We can now look to the second painting, The Night Cafe, a painting in which we find conscious and unconscious meanings and symbols in elements like the pool table, the cafe owner, the lamp lights, and the overall color scheme of the painting. The first element, the pool table falls in line with Vincent’s tendency to insert phallic objects into his work; the pool stick has a pair of pool balls on either side of the bottom of its shaft which gives it the appearance of a phallus and testicles. What is interesting here is that if one follows the diagonals of the wooden floorboards and the direction the phallus is pointing in, it leads you towards the wide gaping hole in the back of the room which suggests the female vagina. What’s more is that the diagonals of the floorboards form a “headlong dive into space creates a powerful and expressionistic effect. It becomes the visual equivalent of an irresistible urge and corresponds to the pull of the “terrible passions” that make care dwellers want to ruin themselves”[2]. Our gaze is then led towards the group in the back of the room; this group seems to be a pair of men and a woman, or two women and a man. Regardless of the ratio of men to women in the back of the room, the men portray the typical cafe going drunks while the women represent the prostitutes that would frequent cafes for customers. The colors are particularly jarring in that the reds and greens, though complimentary of one another provide a very manic mood despite a relatively laid back seen. Vincent would have been going through manic fits while he and Gauguin worked together in Arles mainly due to their personalities conflicting with each others. Vincent outweighs this representation of his manic side by writing to his brother Theo about the painting and describing it as such: “I have tried to express the idea that the cafe is a place where one can ruin oneself, go crazy, or commit a crime..and all this in an atmosphere like a devil’s furnace of pale sulfate[3. ]Despite this description it is not hard to see how the radiating lamps which resemble explosions of light can serve as a representation of Van Gogh’s emotional state. The final element of the painting, the mysterious and ghostly figure of the cafe proprietor Joseph Ginoux becomes an unconscious symbol of Vincent’s deceased father.The figure is the only one in the room that addresses the viewer directly and seems to have complete control over every event happening within the Night Cafe.To further this idea that the ghostly figure is Vincent’s father, we need only look at the pool stick and pool balls which fall on a parallel plane to the owner’s waist giving the idea that he is the one with the largest phallus in the room.Vincent often felt as if he were beneath his father and often depicts him as having symbols of strong manliness.One of his paintings features his father as a large open Bible with a large, thick, candle at the bottom of the open book pointed upwards while the representation of Vincent in that painting is merely a pair of small, yellow books.We can summarize that Vincent found hints of fatherhood in Joseph Ginoux which reminded him of his childhood where he constantly battled his father over religious ideology and artistic aspirations.Both The Potato Eaters and The Night Cafe serve as perfect examples of how artists allow both directly and indirectly, psychoanalytical interpretations of their work.
[1] “Van Gogh and Gauguin: Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams” Bradley Collins.Page 33.
[2] “Van Gogh and Gauguin: Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams” Bradley Collins.Page 125
[3] “Van Gogh and Gauguin: Electric Arguments and Utopian Dreams” Bradley Collins.Page 136
A portrait series exploring the feeling of dysphoria. Disconnection between the self and the reflection, between presence and perception.
Photos by MoudBarthez.
Model's ig: @Maariaaan. Helsinki, Winter 2025.
05.28.08
I was attempting to channel SarahMcL here, but my mouth is sad and skinny compared to hers. She does the angry-looking pout SOOO very well.
I feel a little like I'm trying to find my way through a dark place lately. I'm fighting an internal battle that I'm deathly afraid of losing. It's been a long time coming, this mood, this fight, this shit. I've needed to deal with it for a lot of years, but I haven't felt like I'm emotionally equipped to do so until recently. Self-exploration through self-portraiture has helped me immensely. My filters are changing, and I'm becoming less and less critical of myself. I'm learning to give myself a break instead of beating myself up and continuing to take the blame for decisions that belonged to someone else.
You, my friends, have helped me get to this place in my journey, whether you realize it or not. That friendly little comment you made that day lifted my spirits. That flickrmail you sent me gave my ego a boost that it sorely needed. You've helped me realize that maybe I am ok. Maybe I am better than I thought. Maybe I can be loved, and love in return.
So thank you, all of you flickr people out there, you're the best.
LOL I can only imagine what my IRL friends would think if they saw my photos like this x)
So this week we were told to hit the sac and get sexy between the sheets. We could either be nude or wear lingerie, and Fianna went for the latter. We had to be provocative and have a good pose, and I'd say Fianna accomplished that with a little "self exploration" ;) She's in bed, thinking of her special someone, which is what the bouquet represents. Y'all know I love mood lighting too, so I added some "streetlights" outside of her window, and I LOVE how that turned out. Usually my risks land me in the bottom, but #YOLO. I also tried a smize for the first time, because I feel it works for what she's doing ^_~
Just yellow lines and tire marks and sun-kissed skin and handle bars.
And where I stood was where I was to be.
No enemies to call my own. No porch light on to pull me home.
And where I was is beautiful because I was free.
This photo is part 1 of 2, and is also one of the final installments of a year of self explorations.
Fact: Sara Bareilles' latest EP is flawless. In fact, her music inspired me to create songs of my own a few years ago. I feel that it is fitting to end my project with her inspiration.
Song: Once Upon Another Time.
The first time I listened to this song I was so speechless that I didn't want to listen to it again; I was worried that I would ruin it's raw perfection.
From the Tate Website:
"For Carsten Höller, the experience of sliding is best summed up in a phrase by the French writer Roger Caillois as a ‘voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind’. The slides are impressive sculptures in their own right, and you don’t have to hurtle down them to appreciate this artwork. What interests Höller, however, is both the visual spectacle of watching people sliding and the ‘inner spectacle’ experienced by the sliders themselves, the state of simultaneous delight and anxiety that you enter as you descend.
To date Höller has installed six smaller slides in other galleries and museums, but the cavernous space of the Turbine Hall offers a unique setting in which to extend his vision. Yet, as the title implies, he sees it as a prototype for an even larger enterprise, in which slides could be introduced across London, or indeed, in any city. How might a daily dose of sliding affect the way we perceive the world? Can slides become part of our experiential and architectural life?
Höller has undertaken many projects that invite visitor interaction, such as Flying Machine (1996) that hoists the user through the air, Upside-Down Goggles (1994/2001) that modify vision, and Frisbee House (2000) - a room full of Frisbees. The slides, like these earlier works, question human behaviour, perception and logic, offering the possibility for self-exploration in the process."
More to come from this shoot if I edit more and such, don't think I have a chance of topping the first portrait but life yanno. School is busy but hopefully I'll have a chance to do some self exploration in the coming week!
For tHe VeNt: truth or dare: TRUTH AGAIN!!!
A friend of mine told me today that I made this whole father thing look easy.
My response to her was that I think it’s easier with two parents, but yeah you know what – it’s easy.
That’s right bitch, it’s easy!
And I love it.
I’d say the only thing that sucks about it is the total lack of freedom. You know, the concept that you (without kids person) can get off of work on any given day and do WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANTED and it didn’t matter. Kind of a lack of structure? I mean your place of employment may give you some structure maybe? But the time in between is freedom to do what you choose.
Me? No. I pick up my babe by 5:45PM each day and I live a very structered life till the next workday.
Kind of.
I could have gone home today. NOPE! Look at us here on the beach. Granted, the structure is picking her up and having her with me.
But could I ask for a better person to be with me taking pictures?!?!
The hard part of fatherhood is the lack of freedom. The lack of freedom to be able to go out without having to find a person to take care of her I trust **AND** can afford at the same time. Offset the cost versus going out and I usually find myself surfing flickr with you fucks.
But you know what? The amount of self-exploration, the ability I’ve learned to love another person, and the sheer sense of commitment I’ve gained from both my daughters is insurmountably bemouthed (I made that word up) by this lack of freedom. The amount of depth I have received to be a man because of these two fine little girls is beyond anything I could ever imagine receiving as a “single guy”.
I am the man I am today because of my daughters. Without them, I think I’d actually be kind of boring.
Who knows? Who cares? I don’t regret a damn thing I did in my life. I am who I am right now because of everything I’ve done including having these two fantastic souls in my life.
Do you regret anything you’ve done? You shouldn’t.
Maybe you’d be dead?
May 6th, 2009
*=lapse
Edting By : Me
Using : The Photoshop
________________________
I need to tell you
How you light up every second of the day
But in the moonlight
You just shine like a beacon on the bay
What is your personal identity and how is it affected by your values?Values are central; they go to the very core of us, to our personal identity. Our principles are perhaps the most important thing as, whether or not we live out our dream or achieve our mission, they are most likely to remain intact. Values are a foundation and a plumb line as well as a moral compass.“We are not in control, principles control. We control our actions, but the consequences that flow from these actions are controlled by Principles.” Stephen R. CoveyOur decisions and actions flow from our principles and in this way our values help to define us; they are part of our identity. Our exploration and discovery of our principles is therefore a discovery of self. As one anonymous observer noted: “Every one of us has in him a continent of undiscovered character. Blessed is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul.”So what do we know about our own identity? What do we value in ourselves and others?Think about the first two questions you are generally asked when you meet someone. If you are from the UK or a large part of the Western world it is likely to be “what is your name?” (usually meaning your first name) quickly followed by “what do you do?”What are people really asking when they enquire about what you do? They are asking about your job, profession or vocation for sure. But the fact that this comes out so quickly when we meet people indicates how highly we rate work in our culture and how closely we identify ourselves with what we do. When people ask what you do they are actually asking who you are. They are hoping for an answer that will help them quickly categorise you.
What do you do?
I went along with this for many years because for many years it was easy. I started out as an army officer working as a bomb disposal expert. This was an easy title, and one I enjoyed using, as it sounded impressive. I enjoyed seeing the raised eyebrows and the endearing look of respect (that I so little deserved as they would have found out if they got to know me better). Next I was a Project Manager, working in the construction industry. Again an easy label, although I must admit it sounded less impressive at parties than something with ‘Bomb’ in the title. But hey, I was married by then so whom was I trying to impress anyway? Well everyone actually!The real challenge came with my next job, working for a rapidly growing church. My job description was constantly evolving and therefore it was hard to describe exactly what I did, especially as I was not ordained. I found I not only had to introduce myself as slightly different things but even then it generally required a long explanation. The process of outlining what I did was just long enough to watch people’s eyes glaze over, stare down their drinks or look furtively towards the exit...Working as a consultant was not really any easier as the title ‘consultant’ has become akin to a dirty word to some people. You may be motivated by helping individuals and equipping organisations but one has a lot of justification to do when people look at you with an expression that seems to imply ‘consultant’ is synonymous with ‘parasite’!And then, at one networking event I had a moment of clarity and started introducing myself in this way: “Hi, I’m Simon, I train dolphins to be government assassins.” Once again I had attained the level of eyebrow movement that I have attained as a bomb disposal officer. Life was easy once again but it did make me think, “Why do people, including me, care so much about titles? What does it say about me?”.
Are we just what we do?
who are we? why what we value defines our identity and character
Are we just a suit? (Son of man by Rene Magritte)
If asked about your identity, like me, you may not initially answer beyond your name and job but of course there is much more to us than that. One way we can discover something more about our identity is by what we think when we look at other people. As we walk down a street, enter a room or sit staring out of a café window we are constantly assessing those around us. We compare looks, wealth, car, house, job, children, happiness, clothes, phone. In conversation this process continues through things like accent, vocabulary, demeanour, politics, religion, aspirations and education.Of course much of what we first think is not real; we try to make a value judgement in a fleeting moment, judging the book by its cover. Not surprisingly this process actually tells us more about us than about the other person, because how we classify the others speaks volumes about how we perceive ourselves. If we are putting someone else in a certain box or on a certain level what does that say about our position? I for one did not think I had a pride problem until I thought about this! Even this internal classification can be somewhat misleading. We all have roles that we play and we often wear masks that represent an aspirational self, the person we want to show to the world, rather than the real us. But even if this ideal self is not the true self we can learn more of ourselves. This is because even if we are aspiring to be something or someone else it once again reveals what we value.What is your worldview? What are your beliefs?
Work, position, pension, benefits package and job title can be important to us. Our perception of our perfect partner, spouse and family can be the more presentable faces of simple base motivators. Money, sex and power have always been identified as strong drivers, even if they are hidden under more subtle layers of respectability. Our identity can also be wrapped up in more ethereal things. Our worldview, philosophy, faith or politics can define us because they affect the way we live.None of these things need to be necessarily good or bad in themselves, but for everything we prioritise we need to ask ‘why’ we care about it so that we can understand it further and get under the skin of our thinking. We need to be aware of the things around which we construct our lives. We need to be certain of the foundation we are building upon.
Worth-ship
If we value something very highly we give it worth above other things or even ultimate worth. We build our lives around it. This prioritising, giving position, reverence or regard was called ‘worschipe’ in Middle English. Today its name is ‘worship’. In other words, even if you do not consider yourself religious we all give something religious value.Here is what David Foster Wallace said on the subject:“Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it JC or Allah, bet it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.”Values, character, worship, identity David Foster Wallace – Wikicommons
We may not believe in God but we all choose to give something ultimate worth and choose to build our lives around it. It is important that we know what that thing is and ask ourselves why we value it so highly.Digging down to our principles. Self-exploration can be a scary journey but it is an essential one. We need to know about our principles because what happens when these things are challenged or even taken away? What are we left with? Are our values vulnerable? If they come under attack could everything else come tumbling down? We face long-term insecurity if our values are unreliable or temporal things, even if they are good things such as people or useful things such as possessions.
So what are your values? How do they affect your identity?
therightquestions.org/why-what-we-value-defines-our-perso...