Intimate Space
Interior House Photographs
New Mexico, 1971-72
Homage to Gaston Bachelard and his book The Poetics of Space
New Mexico, 1971-72
Homage to Gaston Bachelard and his book The Poetics of Space
Introduction
In two of my most recently completed projects (Makom : Milwaukee "Place" Photography Projects & Snapshots : Stories of My Life In Photography & Teaching) I have been reviewing and contemplating the many influences upon my Creative Process throughout the course of my life. Also I have been publishing photography projects from the late 1960's and early 1970's, projects that I had put on "the shelf" so that I could devote my time and energy to the most recent work at hand.
It has recently come to my attention that I must bring one last (I think) early project to light that was inspired by Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962), namely the Intimate Space project of 1971-72, photographs made in the interior of a little house in Albuquerque, New Mexico where Gloria and lived and studied and manifested a child during the last year and a half of our three years stay in New Mexico, from 1969 through 1972, as students at the University of New Mexico. In this project I am paying homage to the great French philosopher and phenomenologist whose book The Poetics of Space became very important to me in 1971, when I was just about to begin preparing for my required MFA Written Thesis at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
As I was recently reviewing my new Makom project it occurred to me that "place" and "space" and "presence" were interwoven concepts and experiences that related directly to my first contact with Bachelard's writings. In his The Poetics of Space he invokes the poetics of the house. He writes: ". . . our house is our corner of the world. As has often been said, it is our first universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the word. If we look at it intimately, the humblest dwelling has beauty."
The Poetics of Space shows persuasively, poetically, that our experience of the world essentially is an internal-psychological event. When I encountered the vast space of the Grand Canyon, and the vast space over Lake Michigan, my experience was perhaps very much like Barnett Newman's experience when he stood in the space between the Native American Indian Mounds in Ohio. In that space he experienced " . . . a sense of place, a holy place. Looking at the site you feel, Here I am, here . . . here you get a sense of your own presence . . . " (as quoted in my project Makom)
The Jewish word Makom means: "the Place where God is present." Bachelard quotes the poet Noel Arnaud who wrote: "I am the space where I am" as a way of poetically invoking the idea of Intimate Space, "the space we love." I would argue that the "space we love" dwells first of all in one's Heart, and then it is discovered--recognized and experienced--in its projected corresponding counterpart out in the phenomenal world.
The challenge I face constantly as a photographer is the making of images which transcend mere description of appearances. When a photograph truly speaks to me it is because it has become radiant with the grace of the divine nature of the Heart, the very center of one's Being and the origin of our perceptual process.
Bachelard devotes an entire chapter in his book to Intimate Immensity. And there are chapters devoted to various kinds of interior spaces in which we can imaginatively "curl up" and "inhabit with intensity," such as: Corners; Drawers, Chests and Wardrobes; Nests; and Shells. He also devotes a chapter to the relationship between the House and the Universe.
Exactly forty years after I first read The Poetics of Space, I came to a more deeply felt appreciation of the last chapter in his book which explores The Phenomenology of Roundness. In 2011 my wife and I traveled for two weeks in Turkey. And there I encountered the spiritual power of Islamic Sacred Art in many of its wonderful forms. My experiences inspired me to explore in new ways of understanding the idea of Sacred Art, and more particularly sacred art within a contemporary art practice--such as my own. The research charged my Creative Process with fresh energy, and over two years time manifested a large multi-chaptered project "An Imaginary Book" in which I first began making symmetrical photographs. This kind of imagery became an exciting new way for me to visually contemplate a particular experience I had while viewing an exhibition of illuminated Qur'ans in a major art museum in Istanbul. (see Prayer Stones, the first chapter of "An Imaginary Book")
As I worked with symmetrical imagery for the "Imaginary Book" I began to think of the symmetrical photographs as "round images" for they seemed directly related in spirit and form to traditional mandala imagery--images intended to draw the viewer-contemplator inward, into the "space of the Heart" where one experiences the most profound sense of Intimacy: intimacy with one's own divine Self, which is the Origin of the Universe that appears to us as an "outside" reality. That Bachelard devoted his last chapter in the Poetics of Space, to The Phenomenology of Roundness was most appropriate, of course. It gave the whole book a feeling of completion, of "the roundness of being."
As I've recently been contemplating the idea of The Phenomenology of Roundness, it's been interesting for me to note that Jung asked his patients to create mandalas as a tool in his therapeutic approach, for these magical "round" images help to integrate what Jung termed the "fragmented psyche of modern man." Jung created mandalas himself (you can see many of them in his Red Book). I will have more to say about all this, below, in my Epilogue to this project.
This project was announced on my blog's
Welcome Page in January 8, 2020.
It has recently come to my attention that I must bring one last (I think) early project to light that was inspired by Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962), namely the Intimate Space project of 1971-72, photographs made in the interior of a little house in Albuquerque, New Mexico where Gloria and lived and studied and manifested a child during the last year and a half of our three years stay in New Mexico, from 1969 through 1972, as students at the University of New Mexico. In this project I am paying homage to the great French philosopher and phenomenologist whose book The Poetics of Space became very important to me in 1971, when I was just about to begin preparing for my required MFA Written Thesis at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
*
As I was recently reviewing my new Makom project it occurred to me that "place" and "space" and "presence" were interwoven concepts and experiences that related directly to my first contact with Bachelard's writings. In his The Poetics of Space he invokes the poetics of the house. He writes: ". . . our house is our corner of the world. As has often been said, it is our first universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the word. If we look at it intimately, the humblest dwelling has beauty."
The Poetics of Space shows persuasively, poetically, that our experience of the world essentially is an internal-psychological event. When I encountered the vast space of the Grand Canyon, and the vast space over Lake Michigan, my experience was perhaps very much like Barnett Newman's experience when he stood in the space between the Native American Indian Mounds in Ohio. In that space he experienced " . . . a sense of place, a holy place. Looking at the site you feel, Here I am, here . . . here you get a sense of your own presence . . . " (as quoted in my project Makom)
The Jewish word Makom means: "the Place where God is present." Bachelard quotes the poet Noel Arnaud who wrote: "I am the space where I am" as a way of poetically invoking the idea of Intimate Space, "the space we love." I would argue that the "space we love" dwells first of all in one's Heart, and then it is discovered--recognized and experienced--in its projected corresponding counterpart out in the phenomenal world.
The challenge I face constantly as a photographer is the making of images which transcend mere description of appearances. When a photograph truly speaks to me it is because it has become radiant with the grace of the divine nature of the Heart, the very center of one's Being and the origin of our perceptual process.
*
Bachelard devotes an entire chapter in his book to Intimate Immensity. And there are chapters devoted to various kinds of interior spaces in which we can imaginatively "curl up" and "inhabit with intensity," such as: Corners; Drawers, Chests and Wardrobes; Nests; and Shells. He also devotes a chapter to the relationship between the House and the Universe.
Exactly forty years after I first read The Poetics of Space, I came to a more deeply felt appreciation of the last chapter in his book which explores The Phenomenology of Roundness. In 2011 my wife and I traveled for two weeks in Turkey. And there I encountered the spiritual power of Islamic Sacred Art in many of its wonderful forms. My experiences inspired me to explore in new ways of understanding the idea of Sacred Art, and more particularly sacred art within a contemporary art practice--such as my own. The research charged my Creative Process with fresh energy, and over two years time manifested a large multi-chaptered project "An Imaginary Book" in which I first began making symmetrical photographs. This kind of imagery became an exciting new way for me to visually contemplate a particular experience I had while viewing an exhibition of illuminated Qur'ans in a major art museum in Istanbul. (see Prayer Stones, the first chapter of "An Imaginary Book")
As I worked with symmetrical imagery for the "Imaginary Book" I began to think of the symmetrical photographs as "round images" for they seemed directly related in spirit and form to traditional mandala imagery--images intended to draw the viewer-contemplator inward, into the "space of the Heart" where one experiences the most profound sense of Intimacy: intimacy with one's own divine Self, which is the Origin of the Universe that appears to us as an "outside" reality. That Bachelard devoted his last chapter in the Poetics of Space, to The Phenomenology of Roundness was most appropriate, of course. It gave the whole book a feeling of completion, of "the roundness of being."
As I've recently been contemplating the idea of The Phenomenology of Roundness, it's been interesting for me to note that Jung asked his patients to create mandalas as a tool in his therapeutic approach, for these magical "round" images help to integrate what Jung termed the "fragmented psyche of modern man." Jung created mandalas himself (you can see many of them in his Red Book). I will have more to say about all this, below, in my Epilogue to this project.
*
When I was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico (1969-72) I was required to write an MFA Thesis paper on a theme of my own choosing. I became consumed by this task during the last half of 1971 and all of 1972 to the point where it distracted me from making photographs for my required Visual Thesis. I would often get anxious while reading resource material and writing my paper; and I found I could release that tension by making photographs. I had been doing a lot of work in the New Mexico Landscape at the time, but that work required a long drive out of Albuquerque; so I would simply get my camera and take pictures inside our little miniature house--it was something like a small cabin or a hut--in which my wife Gloria and I lived during the last year and a half of our three year stay in Albuquerque.
I believe it was my friend Dick Knapp, another photography graduate student, who suggested that I read The Poetics of Space after seeing some of my interior house photographs. Dick also introduced me to the writing of the depth psychologist Carl Jung, whose ideas about the symbol, synchronicity, and the creative process in medieval alchemy became the primary influences on my written thesis The Symbolic Photograph : A Means to Self-Knowledge. The interior house photographs were clearly influenced by the landscape photographs I had been making in New Mexico, and the landscapes had gradually become influenced by Bachelard's wonderful book as well. Eventually a visual "dialogue" evolved between the interior house photographs and the outside landscape photographs--both of which were being inspired by The Poetics of Space. (Bachelard, by the way, devotes an entire chapter to The Dialects of Outside and Inside.)
In general, its safe to say that The Poetics of Space had a significant impact on nearly all of my photography after I read the book in the early 1970's. And Bachelard was influenced by Jung's ideas. Bachelard makes many references to Jung in the two Bachelard books I have read: The Poetics of Space and Water and Dreams.
In the first chapter of The Poetics of Space, entitled "The House. From Cellar to Garret. The Significance of the Hut," Bachelard draws direct parallels between Jung's structure of the psyche and the archetypal structure of the house. In his Introduction Bachelard writes:
My aim is clear: I must show that the house is one of the greatest powers of integration for the thoughts, memories and dreams of mankind. . . With the house image, we are in possession of a veritable principle of psychological integration. There is ground . . . for taking the house as a tool for analysis of the human soul . . . Our soul is an abode. And by remembering "houses" and "rooms'" we learn to "abide" within ourselves. Now everything becomes clear, the house images move in both directions: they are in us as much as we are in them . . ."
I have referred to Bachelard in some of my earlier blog projects. For example his book Water and Dreams played a major role in my multi-chaptered 2018-19 project WATER; and I have referenced Bachelard's Poetics of Space in chapters three & four of my multi-chaptered Still Life project of 2013-14 which pays homage to the great Italian painter Giorgio Morandi.
The twelve images you are about to see below, selections from my Intimate Space project of 1971-72, are scanned and adjusted digital versions of my original silver gelatin photographs, which are about 5" square. After the presentation of the photographs I shall write a bit more about Bachelard and The Poetics of Space in an Epilogue that will bring the project to a close.
I believe it was my friend Dick Knapp, another photography graduate student, who suggested that I read The Poetics of Space after seeing some of my interior house photographs. Dick also introduced me to the writing of the depth psychologist Carl Jung, whose ideas about the symbol, synchronicity, and the creative process in medieval alchemy became the primary influences on my written thesis The Symbolic Photograph : A Means to Self-Knowledge. The interior house photographs were clearly influenced by the landscape photographs I had been making in New Mexico, and the landscapes had gradually become influenced by Bachelard's wonderful book as well. Eventually a visual "dialogue" evolved between the interior house photographs and the outside landscape photographs--both of which were being inspired by The Poetics of Space. (Bachelard, by the way, devotes an entire chapter to The Dialects of Outside and Inside.)
In general, its safe to say that The Poetics of Space had a significant impact on nearly all of my photography after I read the book in the early 1970's. And Bachelard was influenced by Jung's ideas. Bachelard makes many references to Jung in the two Bachelard books I have read: The Poetics of Space and Water and Dreams.
In the first chapter of The Poetics of Space, entitled "The House. From Cellar to Garret. The Significance of the Hut," Bachelard draws direct parallels between Jung's structure of the psyche and the archetypal structure of the house. In his Introduction Bachelard writes:
My aim is clear: I must show that the house is one of the greatest powers of integration for the thoughts, memories and dreams of mankind. . . With the house image, we are in possession of a veritable principle of psychological integration. There is ground . . . for taking the house as a tool for analysis of the human soul . . . Our soul is an abode. And by remembering "houses" and "rooms'" we learn to "abide" within ourselves. Now everything becomes clear, the house images move in both directions: they are in us as much as we are in them . . ."
*
I have referred to Bachelard in some of my earlier blog projects. For example his book Water and Dreams played a major role in my multi-chaptered 2018-19 project WATER; and I have referenced Bachelard's Poetics of Space in chapters three & four of my multi-chaptered Still Life project of 2013-14 which pays homage to the great Italian painter Giorgio Morandi.
The twelve images you are about to see below, selections from my Intimate Space project of 1971-72, are scanned and adjusted digital versions of my original silver gelatin photographs, which are about 5" square. After the presentation of the photographs I shall write a bit more about Bachelard and The Poetics of Space in an Epilogue that will bring the project to a close.
Twelve Photographs
Intimate Space
House interiors : 1971-72 Albuquerque, New Mexico
#1
#2
#3 Gloria, 1971, reading by the kitchen window
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9 Gloria, 1972, pregnant with Shaun, the first of our two children
#10
#11
#12
Epilogue
Intimate Space is
the Center of All Space
In Bachelard's chapter on Shells he writes: "Life begins less by reaching upward than by turning upon itself. . . . one must live to build one's house, and not build one's house to live in."
Turning within is a most natural and necessary act to we human beings. When I am photographing, for example, I am in a state of awareness that is very much like meditation; I am seeing inwardly outward things. My photographs are the fruits of a merging of inner and outward corresponding, counterpart images. My best photographs represent a kind of recognition that occurs when vision begins in the Heart (rather than the mind, the intellect) and then flows out through "the eyes of the Heart." In other words, in my experience, perception is a process of projection--a process of "building" one's world, one's universe from the inside-out. (Visit my project Seeing the Grand Canyon.)
After the photographs are created, I then contemplate them. That is to say, I imaginatively, intuitively enter into the images and inhabit the spaces and objects within the photographs. To inhabit is to curl up in a space, to live in a space poetically, intensely, with a full, enlivened awareness of the interior origin of that space: the space of the Heart, the center of one's entire Being, the universe, the divine Self.
Bachelard writes similarly about Nests. He says actual nests, those found in the natural world, and which often contain eggs, become for a time "an entire universe, the evidence of a cosmic situation":
For the world is a nest, and an immense power holds the inhabitants of the world in this nest. In Herder's history of Hebrew poetry there is an image of the immense sky resting on the immense earth: "The air," he wrote, "is a dove which, as it rests on its nest, keeps its young warm."
Nests are round; and, every world ". . . is enclosed in curves, every universe is concentrated in a nucleus, a spore, a dynamized center." Bachelard also writes at some length about birds--beings which are "almost round" (but certainly essentially round).
Here, Bachelard quotes from the poet Oscar Milosz and his novel L'amoureuse initiation:
As I stood in contemplation . . . of the wonders of space I had the feeling that I was looking into the ultimate depths, the most secret regions of my own being; and I smiled, because it had never occurred to me that I could be so pure, so great, so fair! My heart burst into singing with the song of grace of the universe. All these constellations are yours, they exist in you; outside your love they have no reality!
Bachelard says there are two kinds of space: Intimate Space and Exterior Space. When a space is invested with intimacy, that is to say, when it is inhabited imaginatively, with intensity, that space, and all of life's Being, becomes Round. Then that space becomes "the center of All space" for it assumes "a figure of being that is concentrated upon itself." (Image #8)
Photographs that give visual form to Intimate Space are images which function as Symbols, images radiantly alive with grace, images wonderfully "round" with the Oneness of Being.
This project was announced on my blog's
Welcome Page in January 8, 2020.
Related Projects:
New Mexico Landscapes 1971-2
Visit the Welcome Page to my Departing Landscape photography blog which includes the complete listing of my online photography projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, and much much more.
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