4/28/16

Babysitting Photos pt.3 Symmetrical Constructions

Babysitting Photographs Studies VII
Part III : Symmetrical Constructions



Click on images to enlarge
Part I : Sleepy Baby Stroller Views and Dreamscapes
Part II : On the Ground Floor Babysitting Photographs 
Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs
Part IV : Commentaries & Epilogue

Introduction
I have characterized the photographs in parts one and two of this project as little epiphanies of seeing, as preparatory studies for something greater, something larger.  They are for the most part quiet pictures reflecting the sleepy, meditative atmosphere in which I was photographing. The symmetrical photographs, on the other hand, are large images, and they can be rather dramatic and imposing images at times, though they certainly are no less mysterious than the straight Babysitting photographs with which they were constructed.

All 15 of the symmetrical photographs included here were made with images taken while my wife and I were babysitting Claire; seven of the 15 were made with images published in parts one and two of this project.  I have provided links under the titles of those seven images.  I encourage you to study both versions of the image, the straight source image and its symmetrical transformation, and compare the differences in your response to them.  I have personally found that I am not only surprised at the changes the source image has undergone, but often I am astonished at the revelatory nature of my experience.

The symmetrical process is pretty simple: I duplicate the source image and then seamlessly conjoin the two images such that they mirror each other above and below.  Then I duplicate this pair of vertically conjoined images, place them side by side so that they perfectly mirror each other horizontally, and then I seamlessly conjoint them with each other.  What you have, finally, is a symmetrical image in which the four repeated, mirroring images meet and conjoin at the very center-point of the four-fold construction.

The source image undergoes not only a visual transformation, but as I have already indicated there is also a different radiance of meaning in the symmetrical image.  It's as if the meaning that existed in the source image becomes dramatically amplified and projected outward when it is transmuted into a four-fold symmetrical image.  Something altogether new, mysterious and "larger than life" is manifested and unveiled by the symmetrical transformation.

*

When I contemplate a symmetrical photograph, I can eventually reach a point of concentration that allows me to single out its source image and place my full attention on it for a time.  Then as I hold that image in my mind, I shift my attention back to the symmetrical image.  I then strive to hold both the images--the source photograph, and the symmetrical photograph--simultaneously in my awareness.

In this dual mode of perception I inhabit two Imaginal worlds at the same time.  And, as I become comfortable with this contemplative experience I eventually transition into yet another "Imaginal world" that exists between the other two.  This "third" world is timeless, spaceless, silent, beyond description.  It's the world that exists in the center-point of the symmetrical image where the four repeated and mirroring source images conjoin into a visual unity.  The experience of being in this Imaginal space of  unity feels like a merging into an essential "oneness" of being; it's a feeling of having been put-back-together again, made whole.

This epiphany of meaning, this experience of the Unity of Being, is also accompanied by an experience of expansion, of having transcended the linear, rational limitations of space.  This expansive feeling is also associated with the feeling of opening, or perhaps the feeling of having been turned inside-out.  In this experiential mode of being I feel alone, and wholly contented; my mind has become still; I'm enveloped in silence.  The Sufi and Yogic saints might say I've entered the realm of the heart, the very center of being.   This experience is perhaps the richest gift one could ever receive from the process of contemplating an image.

*

I sometimes experience another kind of Intermediate world when I perform the ritual-like process of making symmetrical photographs.  As I witness the source image transitioning into a four-fold, symmetrical image, I find myself imaginatively between the world of the source image, an image that represents the appearance of the outer-world, and the transformed, abstract, interior world of the symmetrical image.  My personal experience of this transformation of the image is similar to that which I have characterized earlier, as being turned inside-out.


Henry Corbin's Interworld of the Soul
In his book Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth Henry Corbin writes about an ancient Iranian world view that involves a plane of existence known as the "Eighth Climate," an interworld which "conjoins time and eternity, space and trans-space."  This is, he says, a transcendent, Imaginal world "alive with the magical energy of sensory images conjoined with their inner-world essential archetype-Images."  His exposition on the interworld especially fascinates me because he is essentially defining a phenomenon that parallels my conception and my experience of the symbolic photograph

In this Iranian world view there is a hierarchy of being arranged in a series of universes, all of which end finally in our terrestrial Earth.  Corbin says the idea of the "mirror" and the idea of the "epiphany" are two modes of perception that dominate this world.

In the Eighth Climate it is understood that all activity is psychic and takes place in a barzakh, or interval. "In order to grasp the Image in its absolute reality," writes Corbin, "it is necessary to have . . . an organ of vision which is part of the absolute activity of the soul, and which corresponds to our Imagination vera."  This "organ of vision" is what Corbin calls "active Imagination."

"In this intermediate world" continues Corbin, "there are Heavens and Earths, animals, plants, and minerals, cities, towns, and forests.  Now, this means, in effect that if things corresponding to all these are visible and seen in this world, here on this terrestrial Earth, it is because ultimately what we call physis and physical is but the reflection of the world of the Soul."

This world of the Soul, this "eighth climate," is what the 12th century Iranian Sufi mystic-scholar Ibn 'Arabi called the Earth of True Reality.  In this Earth of Truth  ". . . all realities exist in the state of Images, and these Images are a priori or archetypal; in other words," writes Corbin, "[these images] are themselves in the meditation of the soul whose world they are."

Corbin continues: "The way of seeing the Earth and the way of seeing the soul are the very same thing, the vision in which the soul perceives itself . . ."   And, then he writes: "Here is the point: in the whole of the universes of this Earth of Truth, God has created for each soul a universe corresponding to that soul.  When the mystic contemplates this universe, it is himself that he is contemplating."

This Earth of Truth is, says Corbin, "the place of flowering of symbols".  It is the place of visionary recitals, the place of prayer in dialogue, the place of divine epiphanies.  It is this intermediate world "that helps the soul to be at last with itself and in itself."  "Every form in which these epiphanies are clothed, as well as every form in which man sees himself in dreams or in the intermediate state between waking and sleep, or in that state of active meditation which is a state of waking while the senses are asleep--all this belong to the body of this Earth of Truth."

I will conclude this brief discussion of the interworld with the following statmement by Corbin that summarizes everything very succinctly, and again, helps to further clarify what I mean by a photograph that functions as a symbol: "This 'intermediate world' is the world through which spirits are embodied, and bodies spiritualized.'  It may be said that each function is the reason for the other.  The intermediate world is accessible only to the active Imagination, which is at the same time the founder of its own universe and the transmuter of sensory data into symbols.  By this very transmutation a resurrection of material bodies into subtle or spiritual bodies takes place."  Henry Corbin, from his book Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth


One House : Seeking Grace
Each weekday morning that we were asked to babysit Claire, my wife and I would drive thirty-five minutes from our house to Claire's and her parents' house.  Then, in the evenings, when our son and his wife returned home from work, we would drive back to our house.  I would often dream through the night of babysitting.  In the morning, after breakfast, Gloria and I would drive from our house to their house for another day of babysitting with Claire. 

The houses we inhabit are a kind of universe, each one a complete world within itself that both embodies and reflects its occupants' minds and souls.  Spending a lot of time in another's house can become a challenge, and I have found that making photographs of a new place is a very good way for me to "make friends" with it.

Often, after a fresh snowfall, I would long to be outside in the fresh snow and the winter light making photographs. When I was babysitting and couldn't leave the house I found a compromise: I took winter pictures through the windows and doors of the house (see Images #1, 2, 3, 4).  Sometimes I would open the front door, or the kitchen's sliding door, so that Claire could directly experience the silence of the new fallen snow, the coldness of the air; and I would help her grab a handful of snow so she could touch it, feel it, taste it, and watch it turn into water.

*
      
I recently found a published talk by my Siddha Yoga Meditation Master, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda entitled One House For You and And The Lord.  In the talk she quotes a Sufi poet-saint who writes about the presence of the "Beloved" in the things of the world.  Each thing the poet's eyes turn to functions as "a mirror in which I see the reflection of my own heart."  At the end of the poem the image of abiding in "only one house" is invoked. 

Gurumayi talks about how the impure ego and the mind separates us from our heart, our inner "treasure."  She says the world is a play of the mind, and when we make the effort to seek grace our mind merges into the full awareness of the heart, the pure ego, the perfect Supreme I-Consciousness.

My creative process in photography has become a form of yogic practice, a way of seeking grace.  Making and contemplating symbolic photographs silences my mind and opens my heart.  Each photograph that functions for me as a symbol becomes a "house" in which I merge and abide with my divine Self.

I will close with excerpts from Gurumayi's talk, One House For You and And The Lord:

Everyone has a good heart.  There's no one in this world who has a bad heart, an evil heart.  The heart is always beautiful, the heart is always clear, the heart is always pure.  It's the most sublime thing anyone could ever own.  And everyone has this wealth, this treasure.

Nevertheless, there are the thieves called mind and ego; they have different names, depending on the situation, and they cause trouble.  But when you put forth self-effort, they can't rule your life. 

This whole world is a play of the mind.  Each action, each situation, each circumstance is a play of someone else's mind.  Think about it.  Start with your own family, then think about your society, then your country, then the whole world.  Each action, each situation, each circumstance in your life is a play of the mind.  If it's not your mind, then it's someone else's.

When we seek divine grace, our mind merges into the Supreme.  Then whatever happens is for the highest goal.  We live in the awareness of Consciousness all the time. 

As a Sufi saint said in his song, 

O My Beloved!  Wherever I look, I see You.
Wherever my eyes turn, 
They meet a mirror in which I see the reflection
Of my own heart.
You are in the gleaming edge of a sword,
You are in the brilliance of sight.
You are in devoted salutations,
And You are also in the pain of separation.
I found You in every form as I desired.
You are in water,
You are in the darkness of the night.
Your vibration pervades the entire cosmos.
Although things appear to be diverse,
They're all a part of You alone, O my Beloved.
This life, truly speaking, is only a reflection of You.
. . . 
Although I myself am the Absolute,
Living alone in the abode of this universe,
As long as I did not know my own Self,
I was caught in the cycle of ignorance.
Because of that, I made the distinction
Between the individual soul and God.
However, through Your grace, O my Beloved,
Now I know You and I have only one house to abide in.

When you have the experience of perfect I-consciousness, you know there is just one house for you and the Lord.  In one house both live, in one house both share, in one house both merge into each other.   Gurumayi Chidvilasanada, Darshan magazine #64   
   


The
Symmetrical 
~  Babysitting Photographs  ~ 




Image #1A, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs    Ice forms on the kitchen's skylight







































Image #2, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs    Hanging Icicles, as viewed through the kitchen's sliding door & screen









































Image #3, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       Green Plants and Snow. as viewed from the front window 








































Image #4, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs   Winter Sunlight and Shadows projected onto the front room window 

 (see Part 1, Image #15) 






Image #5, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       Ice Crystals  formed on the front door window 








































Image #6, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs      Tree Shadows on laundry room wall  

 (see Part 1, Image #16)

































Image #7, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       Sunlight and Shadows on the netting walls of the Pack'N Play   

(see Part 1, Image #18)    
  


































Image #8, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs        Swivel Chair and Shadow       

 (see Part 1, Image #19)






































Image #9, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       Couch Pillows        

(see Part 1, Image #10)





































Image #10, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs        Sunlight on Ceiling    

(see Part 1, Image #4)





































Image #11, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       Mirror In A Corner   

(see Part II, Image #8)






































Image #12, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs      Wall Decoration 






Image #13, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       House Plant and Light Shapes








Image #14, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       Artificial Flowers on Electric Piano









































Image #15, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       Opened, Seeded Pomegranate on Kitchen Counter  







Image #1, Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs       
Interior Images :  Claire's Toys
Click on image to enlarge


*

This project page was completed and posted 
on my Welcome Page in the 
"Recently Added" section
May, 2016

_______________________




Click on images to enlarge
Part I : Sleepy Baby Stroller Views and Dreamscapes
Part II : On the Ground Floor Babysitting Photographs 
Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs
Part IV : Commentaries & Epilogue



Related Links:

The Studies Projects     
Here is the list of projects that belong together under the Studies category.  The projects are listed from the earliest originating project to the present.

Studies 1994-2000
Studies II : Monk's Quirky Music 1994-2000
Studies III: Color Photographs 2006 - June 2013
Still Life Studies IV 2013
The Creative Process Studies V 2014
The Space Between Color and Black&white Studies VI 2014
The Babysitting Photographs Studies VII 2016


Welcome Page  to The Departing Landscape website which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, and more.







.













4/22/16

Babysitting Photos pt.2 On the Ground Floor

Babysitting Photographs Studies VII
Part II: On the Ground Floor 



Click on images to enlarge
Part I : Sleepy Baby Stroller Views and Dreamscapes
Part II : On the Ground Floor Babysitting Photographs 
Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs
Part IV : Commentaries & Epilogue

Introduction
The phrase "on the ground" is often used in association with war reporting.  It can mean being in a position to view things up close in a given place or situation.  

The photographs in this second part of the Babysitting project complement those presented in part one, which is divided into two major sections: the "stroller views," and the "dreamscapes."  The stroller views depict what our 13 month old grand daughter, Claire, might have seen as she was going off to sleep for a nap in her stroller.  Those images look outward and upward, at walls and ceilings and the things upon them.  The "dreamscape" photographs, depictions of an inward, Imaginal world, are relatively abstract and impressionistic compared to the stroller views.

In this second part of the Babysitting project, the point of view of the photographs is that of the babysitter, yours truly.  The images present a rather personal, close-up view of the things and spaces on the ground floor of Claire's--and her mom and dad's--house.  About half of the twenty images are looking downward at things.

As I explained in my introduction to part one, a recording of the Siddha Yoga mantra was playing quietly throughout the day as we cared for our grand daughter.  When Claire napped, I napped; and  as I listened for the sounds of Claire's awakening, I was also hearing the soothing, graceful sounds of the mantra.  On those rare days when Claire took an extra long nap, and I felt rested and refreshed from my own nap, I would photograph.  I would walk quietly throughout the several rooms on the ground floor of the house and take pictures as I listened to the mantra repeating over and over again.  I was in something of a meditative state when I made the Babysitting photographs presented here and in part one.


Letting Go : No Thinking
Claire would look closely and intensely at things.  She would study a thing for a while, and when she was finished with it she would simply let it go . . .  One minute she was gently touching a thing, examining it, playing with it, perhaps chewing on it, giving it her full conscious attention, and then, in some next unpredictable moment the object was in a "free fall" toward the ground.  The toy, book, bottle, cracker or other bit of food would land on the ground in no particular way or place, for once Claire lost interest in something, it was babished from her consciousness.  She had moved on to the next thing.

I was sometimes surprised to see how spontaneously she would drop an object.  There was something humorous about the way she did it at times, but on the other hand it always seemed like the most natural, unpremeditated act, an act that did not seem to involve a thought or a feeling.  I have seen her come close to an act that might approximate a "tossing" an object after losing interest in it, but even those rare incidences,  I was unable to discern an attitude attached to the action.  The object was simply being given up . . . as if to the gods.

I loved watching Claire reach out to get hold of something.  She moved her hand and arm so slowly, deliberately, carefully . . . with tremendous concentration, and with what appeared to be a truly authentic interest.  Clearly she was actively building a body of experiential knowledge from the things she held close, touched and examined.  Each object was of great importance to her, at least for the moment.


The Ground Floor
After a full day of intense play the house would surely have ended up looking like a battleground if my wife, Gloria and I hadn't tried to keep up with Claire's ongoing transformation of her ground level domestic territory.  ~  There is an upstairs to the house, but that was visited only for special occasions, when extraordinary diversionary tactics seemed called for.  Upstairs was a much more private space, occupied by Claire and her parents, mostly at night.  ~  And there is a full basement in the house, but I never took Claire down there. It was too cold, the light was uninviting, and there were too many things that would have presented a danger to Claire.

The kitchen and the laundry room were favorite places on the ground floor, and we visited them often, but we moved through all of the ground floor rooms multiple times throughout each day.  The kitchen could get profoundly messy in no time at all.  Food bits on Claire's highchair tray would become a terrifying looking conglomeration, and inevitably, spontaneously, much of the food on the tray would end up on the kitchen floor.  Gloria and I swept and mopped the kitchen floor many times daily.

I could never take pictures of the food left on the highchair tray, though I thought of trying several times.  And it was impossible to photograph Claire dropping things;  she was much too quick.  You can see for yourself what I did photograph; certainly this project was not an attempt to report or document my babysitting experience with Claire.  Our time spent with our grand daughter seemed to me too precious to interrupt with the camera's presence.  I would only make photographs when Claire was taking her longer-than-usual naps, and almost never photographed Claire when I was babysitting. I felt it was my duty as a babysitter and as a grand parent to pay full attention to Claire, to help her and protect her;  of course I could not do that and make photographs at the same time.  Besides, Claire's parents were always making wonderful pictures and videos of our beautiful grand daughter.


Studies for Something Larger
For the most part my photographs are not about the things I photographed; rather, they are little epiphanies of seeing and feeling, brief moments of recognition . . .  of the sacred presence in the light, in the space, in the things pictured.   The photographs unveil a kind of interior meaning that for the most part have no sayable counterparts; that is to say, their meaning transcends description.

I photographed intuitively, without thinking.  The light usually directed me to what and how to photograph.  Thus, these are little pictures, preparatory studies . . .  studies for something greater, something larger; perhaps that which will constitute a whole--greater than the some of its parts--when the project is completed.


Musical - Imaginal Worlds  
The Babysitting photographs are very much in the tradition of the original miniature Studies photographs I made back in the mid 1990's through the year 2000.  Back then my photography was being inspired by recordings of miniature piano pieces.  Some of the music I most loved or admired were extremely short in duration, perhaps less than a minute or two.  I was fascinated by the concentrated, pithy, direct way a composer would get to the essential sound world, or musical idea of a piece with only a few carefully constructed notes and spaces.  I wanted to make photographs that visually succeeded in the same way that these brief musical compositions succeeded.  The music seemed to unfold naturally, spontaneously, as if emerging out of silence; then after briefly making its point, succinctly, all of a sudden, the piece was gone.  It had dissolved back into silence . . . as if given up to the gods.

Coincidentally (synchronistically), while I was writing this introduction I was reminded of the music of Scriabin.  A radio announcer had mentioned Scriabin's name, and later that day I started feeling a strong desire to hear Scriabin's short piano pieces again.  An old love had become reawakened.  Now I cannot stop listening to this fascinating, haunting, and at times terrifying music.  Perhaps I will consider the prospects of doing yet another series of photographs inspired by music.  Scriabin is a possibility, perhaps Erik Satie.





My experience of babysitting was transformed by the act of photographing in those sustained moments of silence when my grand daughter slept with the grace-filled lullaby-like sounds of the Siddha Yoga mantra playing softly in the background.  The sounds of the mantra seemed to pervade everything I was seeing in the house as I photographed.  ~  There has been a merging of my creative process in photography and my practices of Siddha Yoga meditation.  Together they have helped me to see, to experience all the things of my life with a more fully opened heart.  

Once the photographs are made, another way of going deeper into the image and into one's heart is through the process of contemplation.  In the next, third part of this project I will present four-fold symmetrical transformations of selected photographs from parts one and two of the Babysitting project.  The ritual-like act of transforming a photograph in this way is (for me) a form of contemplation; I will write more about this in the next part's introduction.



Babysitting Photographs
Part II 
On the Ground Floor





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"     Image #1      Toys With Eyes
































Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #2      Glowing Light On the Blackboard





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"     Image #3      Green Balloon





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #4      Claire's Leftover Banana_





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #5      A Pot of Tofu Miso Soup 





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #6     Pack'N Play (Claire's stroller is in the background) 





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"     Image #7      Looking Inside the Pack'N Play





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #8      Mirror In A Corner






Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #9      Chinese Chair In A Corner 





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #10      Couch Pillows





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #11      Claire's Handsudges On the Surface of a Mirror





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #12      The Birthday Balloon's Ribbon





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #13      Hallway Light Switch





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #14   Leaning Table Lamp and Shadow





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #15      Separator Screen Leaning Against the Wall






Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"     Image #16      Artificial Flowers On Top of the Electric Piano





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #17      Electric Piano Keyboard and the Red Light





Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"    Image #18      Looking Under the Electric Piano Keyboard






Babysitting Photographs     Part 2    "On the Ground Floor"     Image #19      Swivel Chair and Shadow





Babysitting Photographs   Part 2   "On the Ground Floor"   Image #20    
Felt Marker Board (detail), with "Claire!" written on it, and Light
Reflections, and Drawings of Stars, Hearts, Squares & Circles 




*

This project page was completed and posted 
on my Welcome Page in the 
"Recently Added" section
May, 2016

_______________________



Click on images to enlarge
Part I : Sleepy Baby Stroller Views and Dreamscapes
Part II : On the Ground Floor Babysitting Photographs 
Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs
Part IV : Commentaries & Epilogue


The Studies Projects     
Here is the list of projects that belong together under the Studies category.  The projects are listed from the earliest originating project to the present.

Studies 1994-2000
Studies II : Monk's Quirky Music 1994-2000
Studies III: Color Photographs 2006 - June 2013
Still Life Studies IV 2013
The Creative Process Studies V 2014
The Space Between Color and Black&white Studies VI 2014
The Babysitting Photographs Studies VII 2016



Welcome Page  to The Departing Landscape website which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, and more.




























.







4/15/16

Babysitting Photographs pt.1 Stroller Views & Dreamscapes


Babysitting Photographs  Studies VII
Part I:  Sleepy Baby Stroller Views Dreamscapes



Click on images to enlarge
Part I : Sleepy Baby Stroller Views and Dreamscapes
Part II : On the Ground Floor Babysitting Photographs 
Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs
Part IV : Commentaries & Epilogue

Introduction
The photographs you will see in this seventh project for the series entitled Studies were made for the most part in February, March and earlyApril of 2016 while my wife and I were caring for our 13 month old grand daughter, Claire.  In March, Claire began attending a day care center; a few weeks afterward she became ill with a fever that lasted over a month.  Gloria and I stayed with her, at our son's and his wife's home, while they were at work.  Our babysitting days, often stretching over an eight or nine hour period, was filled with giving Clair our full, undivided attention, plus other household chores which would help out her busy parents.

When we arrived in the mornings, the first thing we did was turn on the CD player an begin playing a recording of sacred mantra of the Siddha Yoga Path led by our meditation Master, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.  Hearing the mantra being chanted throughout the entire day reminded us that what we were doing, babysitting Claire, was a form of spiritual practice known as seva.

Thankfully, Claire would take at least one nap each day, varying in length from one time to the next.  I would usually feel so tired by that time (I'm in my 70's) that when our grand daughter took a nap, I would nap too.  In rare cases, when Claire took extra long naps, I might reach a point of feeling rested and refreshed enough to get up and consider making some photographs.  If the light was especially interesting that day I would walk quietly around the house taking photographs while Claire continued to sleep.

The photographs made during these infrequent picture-making circumambulations have yielded some interesting images which I have divided up into three parts, each with its own project page and title:

               Part I :    Sleepy Baby Stroller Views 
               Part II :   On the Ground Babysitting Photographs
               Part III :  The Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs & Corbin's Interworld of the Soul

Part 1: Sleepy Baby Stroller Views
When our grand daughter needed a nap, I would place her in a large, black stroller, with the top pulled part-way down to reduce the light level, and then slowly stroll her around the ground floor level of the  house.  As we strolled I would sing the mantra to her, along with the CD recording.  Claire would look up at me.  If our eyes connected she would not want to go to sleep, so I learned to chant with my eyes almost closed.   As we moved slowly through the space of the house she would look out from the stroller at all the familiar spaces and things on the walls until her eyes grew so heavy with the need to sleep that at times I was sure she had reached a deep-sleep state even though her eyes were open.  Certainly the power of the grace-filled Siddha Yoga manta has often put me into an open-eyed trance-like meditative state.

Eventually Claire's eyes would close and she would sleep for varying periods of time.  I would go to the nearby living room couch and rest until I heard her waking up.  However, if Claire took an extra long nap and I reached a point of feeling rested enough, I might get up and make photographs for a while as she slept.  Sometimes the winter light coming through the front windows could be quite magical and would make me want to photograph.

When I began studying all the images I had made, I noticed that several of the photographs were views looking upward.  I fantasized that these images were what Claire had been seeing from her viewpoint nestled in her stroller as she was slowly drifting off to sleep with the mantra.

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There are many modes of being that are somewhere between "ordinary" waking consciousness and sleep,  between sensory perception and the realm of the Imaginal world.  They go by many names such as "the twilight zone," the "hypnogogic state," and I think the term intuition could apply here.  Henry Corbin has written much about an Intermediary realm, the realm of the Imaginal world, and the Interworld of the Soul. 

When I photograph I often slip into this open-eyed intermediary state of being.  It is as if I am photographing in a state of meditation.  I am consciously moving through space and seeing outward things as imaginal, that is to say, potential photographic images.  In this mode of perception I am seeing outward things inwardly, that is to say, through the eyes of an opened heart.  In the case of my babysitting photographs, it is interesting to consider that I am photographing just after having napped during which I was half-consciously absorbing the grace of the sounds of the chanted mantra.  I then get up and photograph with the mantra still resonating within me and in all the things and spaces of the house.

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The first image in this, the first of the three collections of "babysitting" photographs, shows a partial view of the baby stroller and an approximate view of what Claire might have seen as she looks out from within her stroller as she is about to fall into deep sleep.

In the second image we see Claire's hand and the sock she is wearing that day, socks upon which has printed an image of white socks and black patten leather shoes dotted with pink spots.

The first two images form something like a prelude to the the next set of images which are a kind of visual fantasy on what Claire is seeing as she is falling to sleep from inside the stroller as I slowly push her around the house and singing the mantra to her along with the recording playing in the background.

In the third section of this first series of photographs, we first see an image of Claire sleeping inside the stroller.  Her eyes are closed, and the images that follow form yet another visual fantasy; this time the images depict what Claire might me seeing in her dreams.  Perhaps these photographs could be entitled Sleeping Baby Imaginal Dreamscapes.



The Babysitting Photographs
Studies VII
Part One, Section One
Prelude






























Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #1 :  Stroller































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #2 :  Baby's Hand and stockinged foot



Part One, Section Two
Sleepy Baby Stroller Views
























Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #3 : Ceiling View and Air Vent  
































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #4 : Light on Ceiling





































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #5 : Front Door and Ceiling Light


































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #6 : Framed Photograph on Stairwell Wall
































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #7 : Kitchen Skylight


































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #8 : Laundry Room Ceiling Light





































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #9 : Birthday Ballon on Living Room Ceiling 

































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #10 : Wall Speaker

































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #11 : Separator Screens & Air Vent 


































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #12 : Separator Screen & Chandelier 



Part One, Section Three
Sleeping Baby Imaginal Dreamscapes
































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  #13 : Sleeping Baby In Stroller

































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #14 : Dreamscape: Chinese Ceramic Design

































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #15 : Dreamscape: Setting Sun Light and Shadow on Front Room Window


































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #16 : Dreamscape: Tree Shadows on Laundry Room Wall







Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #17 : Dreamscape: Dappled Light on Curtain
































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #18 : Dreamscape: Sun Light and Shadow on Pack'N Play Netting





































Babysitting Photographs  Part 1,  Image #19 : Dreamscape: Chinese Chair Design 






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This project was completed and posted 
on my Welcome Page in the 
"Recently Added" section
April 15, 2016

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Click on images to enlarge
Part I : Sleepy Baby Stroller Views and Dreamscapes
Part II : On the Ground Floor Babysitting Photographs 
Part III : Symmetrical Babysitting Photographs
Part IV : Commentaries & Epilogue

The Studies Projects     
Here is the list of projects that belong together under the Studies category.  The projects are listed from the earliest originating project to the present.

Studies 1994-2000
Studies II : Monk's Quirky Music 1994-2000
Studies III: Color Photographs 2006 - June 2013
Still Life Studies IV 2013
The Creative Process Studies V 2014
The Space Between Color and Black&white Studies VI 2014
The Babysitting Photographs Studies VII 2016




Welcome Page  to The Departing Landscape website which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, and more.








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