View allAll Photos Tagged WORLDVIEWS
Suffering is often one of the most despised things in life and especially in Western culture. We view it as hard, inconvenient, frustrating, and a waste of time. Rarely do we view it as good. Our culture has attempted to shape our worldview into thinking that if it is not comfortable and immediately gratifying or pleasing, it must be bad. In truth, it can be extremely difficult to ever view suffering as a good thing, especially when it hits home and our own lives. At this point you may be beginning to ask me, how could you even think that suffering could be good? What good can come from it? The only reason that suffering can actually be good is because there is a perfect God who can use it for our good! Let me share a bit of my own story and journey with this. Just shy of 15 years ago I was diagnosed with a chronic degenerative muscle disorder called Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy (BMD). At only 10 years old this was an unexpected blow. At that age I didn’t really know what to think of it as I wasn’t really feeling the full effects of it at that point. Fast forward a few years and the symptoms began to settle in, and unfortunately they were here to stay. I began having much more frequent pain to the point where I was having more pain days than pain free days. As time went on, my BMD continued to progress. My pain has since become nearly constant, I have had at least 5 concussions, over 400 falls in the past five years, and several other minor injuries. I have also suffered from headaches, nerve issues, digestive issues, anxiety, and short term memory loss from the concussions. Yet, I will say this, even after all of what I wrote, I am actually very thankful for my suffering. I know you are wondering why at this point, so let me tell you and not keep you in suspense. I have seen the Lord radically and beautifully shape my character in ways that have allowed me to love more like Him, serve more like Him, and even suffer more like Him. He has used it to grow me in patience, compassion, grace, empathy, love, mercy, and so many other ways. I praise the Lord for this because He has worked out for my good what the enemy meant for evil with this terrible disease. Through this, He has grown me and matured me and helped make me into who I am! Even though the journey has been hard, I am so thankful for it because He has been with me every step of the way! I pray that this encourages you and reminds you that no matter what suffering it is, the Lord and only the Lord can work it out for our good and His glory!
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
"There is no dark side on the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark. The only thing...which makes it look light...is the sun."
(Gerry O'Driscoll - Abbey Road doorman, interviewed during the making of Pink Floyd's masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon).
Pink Floyd fans will recognise the first part of this quote, but somehow I prefer Gerry's full reply...it seems to offer a more optimistic worldview , about taking control of your own destiny when a bad outcome seems inevitable. Or something like that.
Traveling around the World in tropical regions the last few months it was once again brought home to me what terrible havoc was wreaked by Europeans on Native populations, say in Indonesia, or in New Zealand, The Samoa's, The Cook Islands, you name it. Often in the name of civilisation, of religion, of 'first-claimant' rights...
We arrived here at the Iguaçu Waterfalls and I recalled that 'The Mission' (1986, starring among others Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons) was filmed here. That film pits eighteenth century ideas of conquest against each other. The memory jolted my mind back to some reading I did back then on the role of religion and civilisation in de worldview of Conquistadores. One of these men was Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (ca.1490-ca.1558). Among his many exploits after extensive travels in Indian territory of southen North America, during his governance of greater Argentina was an amazing trek from the island of Santa Catarina (Brazil) inland to Asunción, Paraguay. 1600 kms of forest hitherto unexplored by Europeans. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions took four months (November 2, 1541-March 11, 1542) to accomplish this feat. On the way, they were the first Europeans to set eyes on these Sublime Waterfalls, named after the Virgin by Cabeza.
In Paraguay Cabeza set to social reforms along christian lines. He forbade slavery, exploitation of Native peoples by each other and by Spaniards and so on. He met with fierce resistance from his compatriots, was arrested and remanded back to Spain, condemned as a danger to the state, freed and his life ended in obscurity. But as far as we know he never doubted his calling, a kind of amazing grace:
Through many dangers, toils and snares
We have already come.
't Was grace that brought us safe thus far
And grace will lead us home,
And grace will lead us home.
Here's part of those waterfalls called 'The Devil's Throat'. The weather was far less than sunny...
Incidentally, there's a recent translation into English of Cabeza's book about his North American experiences. As far as I know, the so-called Comentarios about his 'Argentine' experiences - and his sighting of these Falls - are available only in Spanish.
In my childhood, my worldview was skewed. Through my grandparents we informally learnt about England and Scotland. We learnt the way so set the table, the way to greet other people, particular games, recipes, songs and nursery rhymes, and old English words we were not to use. We had to have our regular precautionary treatment for illnesses that were peculiar to Britain and Western Europe such as ricketts (we had our doses of Hypol or cod lIver oil in case we weren't getting enough Vitamin D - as if ??!! but it might protect us from colds was the thought, and the manufacturers sponsored children's program on the radio!)
OK so what has that to do with basalt at Fingal Head? We learnt at high school geography classes about columnar basalt at Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.
That's interesting, but why didn't we learn that there was basalt in many places in Eastern Australia? Because our world view was skewed and British-centric, and our textbooks were written by a London headmaster in 1951. So when my turn came I had the sheer privilege of co-authoring the first Australian textbook for secondary geography on Geomorphology - landforms and landforming processes - loaded with Australian images, maps, case studies and examples (and global illustrations as well).
Ian
Excerpt from the plaque:
Held-Colour Stories from the Land (Silk Scarves) by Melanie Monique Rose
Melanie Monique Rose is a Metis/Ukrainian visual artist from Regina, Saskatchewan Treaty 4 Territory, a citizen of the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan, and a long-time contributing member of Sakewewak Artists’ Collective Inc and a new addition to the board. Rose’s work centres on kinship and relationships between the land, ourselves and each other. Through plants and flowers Rose invites transmissions of ancestral knowledge and teachings while also imagining and creating a de-colonial future through the lens of Metis worldviews.
Guided by the seasons – Rose’s art practice is informed by the rhythms and the gifts of the cycles. In the winter – her work is slow and mediative – it is a time for stories, listening with a blanket on one’s lap slowly poke poke poking the wool fibres into the substrate below. The process is medicine. When the blanket of snow comes off and summer wakes she moves outside for inspiration. Engaging with plant kin – Rose creates – colour stories from the land. This work holds plant color onto cloth through the process of eco-printing & bundle dyeing. Rose describes these colour stories as memory maps that bring her back to a time and a place, it connects to the land, her young daughter and her ancestors.
...probably unintentionally. Must've struck a vein somewhere that was hell knows what, but it certainly wasn't coal. But it sure put 12 on the map, lemme tell ya that!
Fun fact, those four stones representing the four elements actually exist, at least if the Hopi are to be believed, and probably a few other peoples as well. Each element is also connected with one of the four races of man according to the Hopi's tradition:
White for fire, and that stone is allegedly kept somewhere in the Swiss Alps. Yellow for Air, with a stone in Tibet. Red for earth, this stone is in the custody of the Hopi themselves, and lastly black for water. Where that final stone is, I'm afraid I don't remember. Think of these stones like tablets, a bit like the ten commandments.
The plan then was for them all to be reunited one day so they will... summon Captain Planet I almost said now. And actually that's not too far from how their legend goes - only in reverse. A supreme being from outer space or something like that - brother Pahana as he's called, will bring another tablet, or a fragment of one, depending on which version of the myth you read, and that will then enable the others to be activated, set in motion the shift into a better future, the great awakening, whatever that will look like in practice. Coincidentally, Pahana as a Buddhist term means as much as to surrender, or to overcome - earthly desires that is. Also coincidentally, the Hopi word for Sun is almost identical to the Tibetan word for Moon, and vice versa. But I'm really digressing now.
That plan has failed however, the first sign for that was the arrival of the (white) Europeans in the new world. Their arrival as such had been predicted many generations before it happened, but it was assumed to be friendly - not guns'n germs and steel. Fiery indeed but not the way it was anticipated. From there it really was a downhill slope. The great spirit watched a few more centuries before it gave of its three predicted warning shots - the two world wars, and lastly "one of the sixteen speaking up". Meaning, one of the 16 (mpst major) volcanoes on the US west coast erupting. That ended up being Mount Saint Helens, in 1980.
By that logic, anyone born after that really only came here to be of assistance in Earth's hard reset. Or alternatively, just planned to go through an apocalypse for which ever reason. In case of doubt, just to see what that's like.
The Angolan Pavilion for the 56th Biennale di Venezia is titled “On Ways of Travelling,” yet the exhibition more accurately invokes some of the barriers to the freedom of movement that are experienced by many in Angola, and elsewhere in Africa – visas, economic hardship, borders and road traffic. Yet “travel,” in this context, is not only meant to signify physical movement; it also refers to the meeting of disparate worldviews, lifestyles and temporalities, as well as to states of dreaming, desire and longing for change. The subject is nowhere more relevant than the present context in La Biennale di Venezia, an essential destination for international art tourism and an early precedent for the phenomenon of the ‘global exhibition’ of contemporary art.
"Getting up close to a particular shadow element is every bit as important as witnessing it and relating to it. This is often quite an emotionally rocky ride, especially given that we may find ourselves without our usual adult skills, at least for a time, because the wounded child in us has surfaced to such a degree that we are looking through those eyes and feeling those feelings. The key is to get as close as possible to that part of ourselves without getting lost in that old worldview, staying emotionally raw even as we name and illuminate what is occuring." -Robert Masters
The ocean moves in to cover what it left empty hours ago as a storm makes its final stand. A lone cloud hovers above the ocean poised and balanced for what will next arise.
Wisdom:
HOW TO THRIVE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEV5AFFcZ-s
FREE YOUR MIND: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7NdIKoNbFA#t=11
TRUE HEALING BEGINS HERE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIJjbvVY8wo
Different Worldview/Paradigm: www.youtube.com/watch?v=It3FOeyQm9w
I've written in the past about the periodic Mercury Retrograde and the challenges that presents in our daily lives. Mercury is out of retrograde at the moment, but there are currently five other planets in simultaneous retrograde. That's five of eight and it's fairly unusual to have this many at once. The energy of this mass retrograde is no doubt causing people much internal reflection and perhaps second-guessing and hesitation. There's a tendency toward feeling disconnected and frustration over life in general. Mars in retrograde can cause thoughts of life coming to a standstill and an acute sense of lack of progress. Not a great time for meetings of the mind and the discord is readily apparent in the news lately. Our priorities have shifted over the past year in large part due to the pandemic. In many respects 2020 has reshaped our worldview and the impact will be felt for years to come. The planets will slowly begin moving out of retrograde starting tomorrow so there should be some easing of tension. However beware as Mercury turns retrograde in mid-October just in time for the election.
Somehow I blew this photo opportunity the other day.
Don't know if it was related to the retrogrades or just plain carelessness. Possibly a combination. Found myself standing on a lonely country lane in the aftermath of a thunderstorm. Just a hint of clearing to the north created wonderful highlights in the reflected light of the rain-sautrated roadway. Angry scud clouds reached across the sky. The epitome of bleak energy that I live for, and me standing here with a DSLR and a new lens. Like fishing from a barrel, there was no way I could screw up. I bracketed exposure, bracketed camera angle, all to ensure the capture. Alas I just discovered this morning the lens was zoomed in to 34mm the entire time. The photos were serviceable but lacked the grandeur I felt standing there. I absolutely should have been shooting in wide angle and I still do not comprehend how I failed to notice something so basic. All was not lost however as I had backed up the DSLR shots with a smartphone camera. This is the takeaway shot, and it captures every nuance of what I was feeling that day.
The English-speaking part of the world; politically the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; within the Brexit debate part of an anglo-centric worldview combining Neo-liberalism with British Empire rhetoric.
Excerpt from the plaque:
Guardians of the Owl
The artwork stands as a memorial to Ted Sharp who worked at the Mississauga Library for 34 years. Ted was wise and erudite as owls are thought to be Guardians of the Owl, by Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak, celebrates a worldview that is strong and collaborative. These are qualities that Ted championed and that the Mississauga Library continues to champion today.
As a photographer, I just went to see and capture images. What I found was a community of people from every generation and variety of worldview. This is some of what I found.
On June 26, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image of cloud gravity waves off the coast of Angola and Namibia.
“I [regularly] look at this area on Worldview because you quite often have these gravity waves,” said Bastiaan Van Diedenhoven, a researcher for Columbia University and NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies interested in cloud formations. “On this day, there was so much going on—so many different waves from different directions—that they really started interfering.” A distinctive criss-cross pattern formed in unbroken stretches hundreds of kilometers long.
Similar to a boat’s wake, which forms as the water is pushed upward by the boat and pulled downward again by gravity, these clouds are formed by the rise and fall of colliding air columns.
Off of west Africa, dry air coming off the Namib desert—after being cooled by the night—moves out under the balmy, moist air over the ocean and bumps it upwards. As the humid air rises to a higher altitude, the moisture condenses into droplets, forming clouds. Gravity rolls these newly formed clouds into a wave-like shape. When moist air goes up, it cools, and then gravity pushes it down again. As it plummets toward the earth, the moist air is pushed up again by the dry air. Repeated again and again, this process creates gravity waves. Clouds occur at the upward wave motions, while they evaporate at the downward motions.
Such waves will often propagate in the morning and early afternoon, said Van Diedenhoven. During the course of the day, the clouds move out to sea and stretch out, as the dry air flowing off the land pushes the moist ocean air westward.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE).
via @NASAEarth go.nasa.gov/29Btxcy
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Artist Jeffrey Gibson's series "The Animal That Therefore I Am" consists of 4 animal sculptures installed on the facade of the Met Museum.
The sculptures speak to the interconnected relationship between all living things and the environment.
Gibson's artistic style mixes indigenous worldviews and imagery with color.
To transition from merely observing
the world to developing a worldview,
one must go beyond superficial understanding
and explore the underlying principles.
Montréal, Qc
Une appréciation des choses qui colorent notre monde et un regard sur la manière dont nos souvenirs sont encadrés pour correspondre à nos visions du monde.
An appreciation of the things that color our world, and a look at how our memories are framed to fit our worldviews.
This is a shot of window reflections. It includes a detail of Alex Katz's painting, "Upside Down Ada." Shot at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
It is no accident ...
that you are found...
in the mystery...
of the horizon...
east of me.
each morning...
In the silence...
of the shadows...
i wait...
for your light.
-rc
In the Middle Ages, people believed that all the world was full of symbols, revelations, hidden secrets of the divine plan. Absolutely nothing was accidental.
-BEAUTY AWAKENING BELIEF How the medieval worldview inspires faith today, Jon M. Sweeney
Excerpt from www.instagram.com/p/DIOuAlLv0jS/?img_index=1:
In fall 2023, the #GardinerMuseum announced our largest capital project in 20 years—a $15.5-million campaign to transform the visitor experience, guided by the principles of connectivity, access, and Indigeneity. The full-scale reimagining of our ground floor features the construction of the Gardiner’s first-ever gallery of Indigenous ceramics, highlighting pottery traditions of the Woodland and Great Lakes region, where the Museum is situated.
Designed by architect Chris Cornelius (Oneida) (@christcornelius) of studio:indigenous and curated by the Gardiner’s inaugural Curator of Indigenous Ceramics, Franchesca Hebert-Spence (@franchesca_hebertspence) (Anishinaabe Sagkeeng First Nation), the gallery will hold ceramic belongings and stories from time immemorial to the present day.
Today, we’re thrilled to reveal Chris Cornelius’ design and the intention behind it:
“The piece is called yelákhwaˀ (container – “one uses it to be in”) in the Oneida language. As a Haudenosaunee designer, I am using language to connect the physical object with the land. My intention was to create a vessel that is part of the larger museum experience but also acts as a container to present the Indigenous ceramics within it. These belongings are not archaeological artifacts of the past but a continuation of Indigenous knowledge and expression. It is my goal to be a good future ancestor. The designed objects I create, including this one, express a contemporary culture grounded in a timeless worldview.
yelákhwaˀ consists of a wooden frame that takes the shape of the vessel, and a copper mesh skin that acts as feathers. The transparent mesh conforms to the shape of the vessel’s body while revealing the contents within. The vessel contains a view of the sky via a video projection that compresses 24 hours into 20 minutes, changing the visitor’s experience each time they enter the space.”
The area around Ketchikan is home to the Tlingit people. I was impressed by the amount of dwellings that had their own totem poles. I was used to seeing them in parks but seeing them in a family's yard was quite a sight. It was quite obvious that many of the tribe still look to their traditional tribal religions and worldview for inspiration, security, and a sense of identity.
Ketchikan, Alaska
A cosmic vision painted inside Qoricancha, the most important temple of the Inka Empire, located in Cusco, Peru. This artwork represents "Willka Mayu" (Sacred River), the Inka name for the Milky Way. The Inka believed that the celestial river mirrored the Vilcanota River on Earth, forming a vital part of their agricultural calendar, spiritual life, and cosmic worldview. This stunning piece captures both the mystery and vibrancy of their astronomical knowledge.
There's not much wrong with being like that when nobody ever seriously wants to be with you anyway, one could think. No risk for anyone. There's at least one caveat to that view, however: How do you know nobody does? How certain can you really be about that? The truth is, you can't, no matter how implausible it appears from your perspective. You never know everything someone else sees in you.
Once you realise people might be interested in you, and the clearer it becomes this happens more often, more quickly and more intensely than you would have believed to be reasonable or even possible. For good reasons or not so good ones. At that point you also need to realise that you carry... a burden, I'd almost have called it. That's not true. A burden doesn't have upsides. But you do find yourself holding responsibility suddenly. Responsibility you might not be prepared for. Suddenly you're not playing games anymore - you're living a life instead. The rules are different here, and also more strictly enforced. You need to be much more careful who you talk to now, how close you let other people get. Relearning how to talk to people, how not to talk to them, and also how to not talk to people, in way that doesn't look like a punishment to them.
There's always some growing to do of course; if you're looking for something to be improved about yourself, you'll always find something. Except, this kind is different. Saying yes, saying no, meaning what you said, and sticking to that. What it ultimately comes down to, is the question "Do you want to get good at the game, and do you have at least an idea how you might accomplish that?"
Whether that idea actually will work, only time can tell, of course, but you need to have an idea. Better still, more than one. First of all, for any of that to work, you need to know what you want.
It's the kind of question, where there really is one correct answer only: "Yes." If your answer is, "Maybe", "I don't know", or anything like that, then it's really only viable to acknowledge that and stop playing. Not to play is the only way to win as they say. At least at this point in time.
I mentioned the other day in my first Kodak Aerochrome simulation, that album covers have featured some of the most innovative artistic photography. Photographers like Karl Ferris simply used Aerochrome film. British photographer Simon Marsden used monochromatic infrared. The title of this article says it all. www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/simon-marsden-photo...
So there can be no denying here that when I processed this photograph I had in mind the incredible disused Battersea Power Station that features on the cover of the Pink Floyd album, "Animals" (1977). In my photo art, "End of the Age of Coal", I describe this photography in more detail.
But here is another one of my processed versions of Aerochrome. It is meant to be surreal and provide an alternative worldview. We must not forget that taking a picture is only half the step. The other half belongs to the processing.
Waterfall No. 7, Big Falls on Beechflat Creek...As I stood here, I mused to myself about how unique it was that this waterfall was considered number 7. Usually waterfalls are numbered consecutively from the bottom to the top, say for example, like the waterfalls on Emery Creek in the Cohutta Wilderness. Perhaps they are named in reverse order on Beechflat Creek, because the prevailing, reasonable way to see them is by hiking down the creek gorge from the top, hence number 7 is at the bottom. Of course, one could attempt hiking upstream to see them, but from the base of number 7, it is practically impossible to do it safely. Standing here, we are miles and miles away from any houses, drivable roads and homesteads. Beechflat Creek is completely secluded. There was an otherworldly feeling down in this gorge. Since the Cherokee Indians occupied these mountains for centuries, in Cherokee culture, the number 7 is deeply sacred and woven into spiritual and societal frameworks:
• Seven Directions: The Cherokee recognize seven cardinal directions—North, East, South, West, Up, Down, and Center (the place of the self or the sacred fire). These directions are integral to ceremonies and worldview, representing balance and connection to the cosmos.
• Seven Clans: The Cherokee organize their society into seven clans (e.g., Wolf, Deer, Bird, etc.), which define kinship and social structure. Each clan has specific roles, and the number 7 symbolizes unity and diversity within the tribe.
• Spiritual Significance: Seven appears in Cherokee stories and rituals, often linked to creation, balance, or supernatural beings like Judaculla. For example, some legends describe seven as a number of power, tied to the actions of mythological figures or sacred sites. The entire creekside right mountain ridge-line here was named after Judaculla, whom we’ll discuss further on my last forthcoming post.
Entranced
The young woman's eyes, in this photograph, are not only focused on the pictures in front of her, but maybe also on the essence of life they catch, evoking a rich tapestry of human experience and reflection.
The gallery's gentle, grey lighting evokes a contemplative mood that beckons visitors to fully engage with the ideas and pictures on display. The woman’s experience is placed in the larger story of the exhibition by the arch of little framed photos and descriptive text.
The photograph and its context are a commentary on photography itself. By means of a camera, we preserve moments for contemplation and interpretation by future generations.
Every image is evidence of the photographer's own viewpoint, a window into their reality and worldview. Photographic humanism, in particular, is exemplified in the way that images convey the richness, beauty, and variety of the human experience, promoting the possibility of understanding and connection across time, culture, and location.
The Angolan Pavilion for the 56th Biennale di Venezia is titled “On Ways of Travelling,” yet the exhibition more accurately invokes some of the barriers to the freedom of movement that are experienced by many in Angola, and elsewhere in Africa – visas, economic hardship, borders and road traffic. Yet “travel,” in this context, is not only meant to signify physical movement; it also refers to the meeting of disparate worldviews, lifestyles and temporalities, as well as to states of dreaming, desire and longing for change. The subject is nowhere more relevant than the present context in La Biennale di Venezia, an essential destination for international art tourism and an early precedent for the phenomenon of the ‘global exhibition’ of contemporary art.
Approaching the Pavilion itself feels like a form of travel through time and space: the exhibition is mounted on the second floor of the Palazzo Pisani, a Baroque Venetian palace on the Grand Canal that now houses the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello. In order to reach the installations, one traverses a richly decorated entrance hall to the sound of music students convening and rehearsing.
People are generally not against work. What they are against is bullshit jobs, e.g. work that only exists to leave them too busy and exhausted to protest against their higher ups making 800 times as much per month. I'm sure no reasonable person will mind their boss's boss making two or three or even ten times their wage; that's the reward for the responsibility they carry every day, and for the oath to go down with the ship, should it ever founder.
But most people will gladly offer their energy in return for maybe not so great payment if they see it makes a difference, if it helps to achieve something, especially if that is for the greater good. Just ask a firefighter or a policeman what they earn, and why they do their job nonetheless if you don't believe me.
One thing that differentiates scarcity from abundance is, you can fake it much more easily. Take all the abundance that is there and keep it for yourself, or hide it otherwise, instead of sharing it with the people who helped to create it. As long as you don't get caught, they'll happily keep on trucking for that measly wage, because it allows them to feel needed. But you better fear the day they realize they could have been working for only half as long, and there'd still have been enough sales for the company to make a profit and the boss could still have had his comfy mansion and his yacht. Just not five of them.
Artist Jeffrey Gibson's series "The Animal That Therefore I Am" consists of 4 animal sculptures installed on the facade of the Met Museum.
The sculptures speak to the interconnected relationship between all living things and the environment.
Gibson's artistic style mixes indigenous worldviews and imagery with color.
As a photographer, I just went to see and capture images. What I found was a community of people from every generation and variety of worldview. This is some of what I found.
❧ this is her best side
mapping her immersive interior
a state of mind
transmitting a tradition deeply rooted in her connection
to a source whose language is truly a divine beauty
which brings all the colours of her life here in the now;
and a worldview that involves the interpretation of
the natural universe based on traditions -
which favored what was right for the soul in charge,
but not what was convenient or preferable
to those in charge with wings of desire;
nor to those whose effect on us is half realizing
there are no secondary characters which are ignored
little by little... her everyday moments
begin to encompass more characters, more generations...
precious signs of what's to come and above all,
these beautiful bonds that are formed in full circle
whose effect is to be in state of constant awe
Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19
2.5 million light-years
as above, so below; as outside, as inside.
she is from the sea, she is from the sun
she is from the pond, as she is from beyond her self
would you care to belong
to her auto-portrait of
our universal inner smile? ❧
°°°°°***
🎶
“What is belonging?” we ask. She says, “Where loneliness ends.”
― Rivers Solomon, The Deep
Some people have a scientific mindset. Many more have made science their religion. Usually the same kind to whom you have to be either or - scientific or religious.
Religion is not the same as the belief in a form of higher power, e.g. God, not the same as being spiritual. These things can be a religion, but so can many other things - pretty much anything, really. The word religion has the same root as ligature or ligament, it's something that connects, something intended to keep you stable and upright and strong. That can just as well be a sports, a specific sports team, a hobby, a political view, or indeed science, or a particular view within the vast umbrella term of "science". It's not that there is consensus among every last scientist after all, but neither is there among all the various denominations of the faiths, of course. Props to scientists for not going at each other's throats over this at least.
My point is, I don't know if God exists in any way shape or form. I have my views and beliefs, but no way to prove any of them. That's why they are "beliefs". However, the same applies to most higher scientific concepts. I, as an ordinary person, can prove them neither true nor false. I don't have a space station at my disposal, nor a hadron collider, nor an electron microscope. I've never seen an atom or a DNA helix, I've never witnessed a photon transition from wave into particle state. Those animations you can see in every other documentary of how celestial bodies exert gravity in accordance with their mass, by warping the space time continuum - for all I know they might as well be a video game. Movie magic. All I'm left to do is choose to believe or not to believe what people who claim to know better tell me they've found out. Same with the words of preachers and whatever scripture someone might come up with.
Something else I noticed a few times: The harshest critics and most hardcore followers of (for example) the Bible, both tend to look at it the same way: They take it strictly literally. I once posted that point on Reddit, and sure enough some smartass came up, saying like "according to book and chapter so and so, Jesus did this and that (I've forgot what it was, let's say walk over water), which you hopefully agree is nonsense." Yes. It is nonsense, we were in perfect agreement there. Only, his statement was meant to prove wrong my point about people taking it literally.
And don't even get me started about Dunning Kruger. It's true more likely than not, and it's absolutely fabulous. I noticed that a lot when talking to head-heavy people about astrology. Always triggers them. "Star signs? Yeah of course, because there are only precisely twelve types of people and personalities. Don't be ridiculous!" No. The first rule about astrology, without which nothing else works: The whole chart matters. Every human being has every star sign (or archetype, technically) in some place of their horoscope, interacting with the others in several different ways, through planets, houses, the four corners of the chart, aspects, nodes, what there all is. There aren't just twelve horoscopes. There are, at this point in time, about 8 billion, and hardly two of them are exactly the same.
None of that is to say that astrology is above all criticism or leaves no questions unanswered. Or that Darwin, Lesch and Hawking are out of the window. But that right there, is how Dunning Kruger is so fabulous: When two sides of an argument disagree, it must invariably be the other who has fallen victim to oversimplification. It can't possibly be your own. Even if the discussion is about a topic you never looked into for even a few minutes.
But at least you've found an academic sounding way to call someone an idiot, so I guess there's that.
As a photographer, I just went to see and capture images. What I found was a community of people from every generation and variety of worldview. This is some of what I found.
If you're afraid of death, the currently held worldview gives no escape. So one question in response might be, why are we here now, balancing seemingly by chance on the cutting edge of all infinity? Death isn't an end, just another change process, science shows us that consciousness cannot die, because it proves that energy can't die, it just changes form.
More often you are drawn to the world's grand views, and dreaming about to go there with your cameras. But if you dig where you stand, you will find some local delicacy that in right circumstances will be as good =)
Nikon FE - Nikkor 35-105mm Af-D at 90mm - f/8 handheld at 1/500sec - Fuji Provia 400X.
Beddinge 2018.01.21
More often you are drawn to the world's grand views, and dreaming about to go there with your cameras. But if you dig where you stand, you will find some local delicacy that in right circumstances will be as good =)
Nikon FE - Zeiss Distagon 28mm ZF.2 @f/16 - Fuji Velvia 50 - Exp2006.
Around Kjøpsvik 2015.03.03
Each day my concerns grow as to how things are framed and presented - be it within a social, political, personal or universal context.
What I mean to say is, that with the advent of digital instant technology, each time we record and view the reality around us - it has an immediate effect on our views and understanding of that which is captured - unlike previous forms of recordings and communications, which had time lags, to allow for refection and integration.
This is not necessarily a good or bad thing, just something which seems to have inherent within it implications - we perhaps have not yet come to fully understand.
How does one move outside the boxed effects of TV, computers, paintings, photographs... in not only relationship to their physical reality - its flat 2D x 3D illusion - but also how it frames our psychological, emotional and spiritual worldviews.
In this series, I began to take seemingly random shots of the pavement while walking. Within this supposed randomness, I began to notice that a story – an event - had taken place referenced by the imprints and articles left behind. More importantly, the story was still in progress. It was due to this that it got me thinking about this boxing in effect – of how we tend to frame and manipulate things to fit within our own personal worldview.
Of course, it could be argued that I also framed these shots – and that would be true. However, it is somehow in how these elements – within the frame - dictate the context – the idea - of the image that go beyond its obvious content, which began to fascinate me.
The ancient Greeks were naked or rode on horseback, nor, even approximately, looked like an idealized images. Judging by the average Greek osteoarheološkom material was a stocky, robust, relatively short legs.
How, then, the Greek art defines a man? Aristophanes legendary winners of the marathon describes: smooth chest, bright skin, big shoulders, a short tongue, a big butt and a small penis (Clouds, 1011-13). The man was naked, a woman, until the beginning of Hellenism Praksitela and mostly dressed. Only with a few exceptions, all the Greek artists, and all the ancient authors who wrote about nijma men. Greek world, as we know it today, is a male world, and the state, the polis, the patriarchal concept of involving only adult congenital men. Publicly displayed works of art, especially sculpture and architecture are much more addressing the man, but a woman. All of this points to one, relationship between the audience and watched in Greek art becomes the relationship between Erastus and eromena, beloved and lover, in which the sculpture (or pictures) eromen, junior partner in a homosexual relationship, which is passive, perhaps, accentuated reduced penis . Does this mean that Partenonski frieze procession desirable homosexual partners? Worth it just for the tens of thousands of kouros, a sculpture of naked boys who are like tombstones stood all over the Greek world? It is obvious that we can not Greek construction of corporeality and sexuality measure today's standards, but the affinity that our culture is shown to the classics (Twentieth Century, however, follows the trend of abandonment of traditional forms) are not missed. Later, we see that there, although there is a huge gap of misunderstanding, many points of contact between modern and Greek civil taste.
When we talk about the relationship of the human body, with all their needs, and cultural norms, are talking also about how integration in society. The basic form of the Greek society is distinct homosocijalnost, and for the Greek polis, we can rightly say that the men's club, while all other social groups condemned the segregation (women, foreigners), or completely off (the slaves). Unlike the Eastern civilizations, where distant and invisible to authorities govern the lives of its subjects, the polis, which is completely independent and self-sufficient entity, a man (man) becomes visible, palpable agent in the creation of the state. However, this task is not easy. Greek soldier, farmer or tradesman, a voter, a full-fledged citizen, all in one. Tensions emerged that many contradictory roles that the Greeks had to exercise can be felt in the description of the Athenian demos from around 400 BC AD: capricious, choleric, unjust, inconstant, but also accommodating, compassionate, sympathetic, boastful, conceited, humble, gentle and wild, all in one. (Gas NH 35th 69) Not surprisingly, therefore, that neither Plato nor Aristotle placed him in a democracy are not desirable and equitable social order.
The woman was in the polis became the antithesis of a positive, active, male principle. At the Parthenon on the two places could see the struggle of the Greeks against the dangerous female troupe, the Amazons (the metopes and the Athena's shield), while in the temple, on the podium Athens Partenos there view of creating the first woman, Pandora, which, as we have learned from Hesiod, gods created as an evil for men. The final showdown with the role and position of women in Athenian society has been registered on the mythological level, the story about the trial of Orestes, murderer of the mother. The lawsuit was Apollos' argument prevailed, thanks to Athena's casting vote, that the woman just groove in which a man throws seed, and that she does not play a role in inheritance and does not determine the future no man. Orestes is, therefore, solely responsible father as a single parent. However, when you mention all the art and mythology of all, we know that these are fields in which most reflects the state ideology. The role of women in Greek society was hidden, but very important, as today in some areas of the Mediterranean. But what we are currently most interested in is to be very long portrayed women as revised (incomplete) man, and that odjevenost its natural state. It seems that the show (and show), femininity was particularly limited, and that is seen as subversive in a strictly male polis.
The fundamental tension that permeates the polis and who is much involved in the construction of Greek mythology, literature and culture in general, the conflict of the individual and authority, and desire and the law. Characteristically, the civil society of equal to the materialism and competitiveness rises ambitious and egotistical individual who lust for the material is transformed into the desire for all the pleasures available to him. Greeks see such a symposium, spree that has become a central ritual of civic life, where the drinking and the competition in elegance and wisdom of engaging in all possible sexual pleasures. Quite different is the Greek who walks under the heavy weapons as part of a faceless phalanx. Pressed and pushed the bodies completely lost personality, and the only thing left is his awareness of obedience to the strict requirements of the battleship row, which only he can ensure survival. His body, which plays a central role in his worldview, it is now part of a large body of the polis, and above it no longer has any power. When Plato says: What in fact what most people call it peace (...) is just empty words, and things are by nature all of the state (polis) in nenaviještenom constant war with all countries. (Laws 626-a), does this mean that peace is an unnatural, perhaps even more dangerous state of war? It is obvious that the constant uncertainty of war has a strong role in the cohesion policy. Uniformed and hardly moving phalanx carries a clear message to the necessity of unity and submission to the community.
This forlorn little cemetery statue stopped me in my tracks recently. It struck me as the perfect metaphor for how I feel lately. Completely buried in a never-ending avalanche of bad news. I am a news junkie at heart, but even I've had to limit my exposure in an often futile effort to maintain mental wellness. The delayed outcome of the presidential election, coupled with the annoying and unnecessary delay in transition, have only served to punctuate an already awful year. And meanwhile the pandemic rages on. I was thinking the other day just how conditioned I've become to a daily onslaught of bad news. I recall the early days of the pandemic and the anxiety attacks that followed even a quick stop at a grocery store. Im way past that point now. Difficult to even remember a time before it all began. Going into stores without a mask; embracing people; shaking hands. Even family gatherings, all gone. Everything has changed this year, for better or worse. I feel oddly detached from the approaching holidays. The Covid format threatens to suck most of the joy right out of the season. I'm not quite as downbeat as this all sounds. I continue to find ways to relieve the stress by staying active and being creative. Can't help but wonder if artwork developed during the pandemic might someday be regarded as a unique genre. I'm not talking about photos of people wearing masks. Rather the subconscious impact on our worldview that emerges when we create. No doubt the pandemic has influenced us all, perhaps in ways that are yet to be recognized.