12x12"
Studies
~ Book Four ~
A Collection of 12x12" Inkjet prints, 2023
(In late June, 2024 I removed some images from this collection causing brakes in the numbering)
"Seeing With the Eye of the Heart"
Introduction
The title image, above, provides us with a title for this fourth blog BOOK of 12x12" Studies Inkjet Prints. I made the photograph while working on the Pandemic Inspired project Snow Photographs In Praise of the Christmas Spirits. When I was out photographing and saw this situation, I realized--like so many other times when I was photographing--that what I was photographing had come "alive" in an extraordinary way for me. It seemed as if what I was seeing was looking back at me, with a consciousness similar to my own!
The yogic saints tell us the dwelling place of the Supreme Soul, God, the divine Self, pervades everything in the created world, and most particularly, in the human Heart. There is and always has been, of course, a great mystery associated with the human "Heart." I like to imagine the Heart as an unimaginally vast interior space pervaded by the primal, sacred, divine Presence which exists within every created thing (perceptible and imperceptible) in the Universe. (See my projects Makom & Thing-Centered Photographs.)
The great Bengali mystic-poet, Tagore (1862-1942) wrote in his collection of poems entitled Gitanjali (Song Offerings):
Life inside my life,
The deep touch of being . . .
the inmost sacredness you are,
It is my life's purpose to reveal you
whatever I do.
The strength I have to do
that is your power moving in me. (trans. Coleman Barks)
When I photograph, I make a conscious effort to be open to this Universal Creative Energy . . . "the deep touch of being . . . the innermost sacred," That ineffable, hidden Truth, the Oneness of Being which some photographs have the ability to unveil. Such Images that come into being through my picture-making creative process is my most essential and primary goal. I like to refer to these kinds of images as True, living Symbols, images alive with grace, that inner most resonate sense of the sacred, images vibrantly radiant with their own interior light, which in yoga is often referred to as the "Light of Consciousness," the "Light of the Self."
This experience of seeing is not something I can make happen; it is not a matter of will; it is more a matter first of intention and then secondly allowing a creative force--greater than my individual ego--to come through me and into the photograph. When that happens, the images usually function for me as a True, living Symbols, images radiant with ineffable, unknowable meanings, images illuminated with the "splendor," the "revelations," the "mystical workings of grace."*
(*Note: the italicized words in quotes immediately above were written by Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and presented in a live stream meditation program on July 15, 2023 on the Siddhayoga.org website.)
There have been a long history of Studies projects in my creative process (visit this link to see a listing of all the blog projects). When I began working on the very first Studies project, in 1994, I had been practicing Siddha Yoga under Gurumayi's guidance for seven years, so by that time I understood something about being open to grace. I understood, in some unspoken, interior way that I must "allow the grace of my Creative Process to take me where it wants to go," and that grace had something directly to do with my practice of Siddha Yoga and my interior relationship to Gurumayi. Another teaching, which Gurumayi presented in writing during the July, 15, 2023 live-stream Siddha Yoga meditation program, relates to this idea in a fascinating way. Gurumayi wrote:
After "accomplishing the things you have promised yourself to do"
take time "to sit back and admire the hand of destiny in your endeavors."
*
Back in 1994, When I was working with the miniature silver prints for the first Studies project there was a very definite pleasure for me in making smaller square prints. Part of the reason was my propensity to re-vise my favorite images in numerous ways over sustained periods of time. To re-vise was for me to "see again" the same image transformed relative to the way I knew the original, earlier printed version. Such transformations fascinated me in the way that an image seemed to come alive in a new, revitalized way. And, interestingly, making small and transformed printed versions of old negatives did indeed inspire in me a simpler, more direct, and spontaneous way of seeing photographically with my 35 mm camera. Often I would simply have to print the center section of the longer 35mm image to get at the center of the essential content of an elongated image.
*
As in the three previous 12x12" Books I have continued to provide titles under each of the images included in this collection, though often they only serve to describe, and I have written some brief commentaries on selected images when I felt inspired to do so.
In the earlier books for this 12x12" Studies project I have also expressed my concern regarding how I would want you to view my published blog images in the most technically articulate way, especially for those who view my blog images on a desktop or laptop computer.
To be brief, if you are using a desktop or laptop computer, I encourage you to click on the image once, so that it can be seen surrounded by black space (rather than white space); and then with a second click on the image, the image will usually become more enlarged, and it will have increased image sharpness, luminosity and color quality compared to the image you see in the blog's default presentation. Beyond this alternative approach to viewing individual blog published images, you can control image size by zooming in & out and you can darken or brighten the image to your preference manually. For more information about all this, please visit my blog link Regarding Viewing My Online Photography Blog Projects.
Welcome to Book Four, of the 12x12" Studies project. And I invite you to see all the other 12x12" Projects.
~ Book Four ~
The Photographs
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(In late June, 2024 I removed some images from this collection causing brakes in the numbering)
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #1 "Seeing With the Eye of the Heart"
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12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #2 Bathroom window, Minneapolis Airport en route to Alaska
A piece of frosted plexiglass was placed over the bottom part of the window to provide
some privacy for those using the bathroom. For our 50th wedding anniversary
Gloria and I took a trip to Alaska. To week long trip was cut very short
after Gloria fell and badly smashed her shoulder. See my project:
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #3 Angelic Presence in the sky over the North Meadow & Pond
Visit my project Blue Angels
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #4 Face emerging from a windswept sculpture, Italy
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #5 Portrait of Gloria with hand up to the side of her face
This picture is one of many in which I have expressed my fear . . .
of death, losing Gloria. There have been numerous incidents
before and after we were married that Gloria almost
died or at least it appeared that way for some time.
Visit these Portrait photographs
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12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #6 Snow Covered Rock, early morning, after the storm
I took this picture twice, in a way. The night before the snowstorm
I took a picture of the same rock from the same angle and distance.
Visit my project:
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #7 Snow covered pond with circular form in the middle
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #8 The Ghost Ship of Souls, A Pandemic Inspired Still Life
This is (for me) one of my most important photographs made during the Pandemic.
I always saw this image as a ship moving slowly into darkness
carrying the many who had died during the Pandemic.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #10 North Meadow and pond following an evening storm
This is one of the very meadow pictures which I've been able to adapt to the
square formate I have insisted upon for this 12x12 Studies project.
I really like the "dialogue" that exists between the illuminated
pond, the yellow patch of sky, the blue above, and
the way the three shapes echo each other.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #11 Two black birds & blue tree
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #12 Birds on lines and a full moon
This image began as a Chromatic Field, essentially a photo-collage of repeating
image fragments, that I then circled and inversed the tones around the "moon."
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #13 Symmetrical Golden Snowdrift
from the project Snow Photographs from The Silver World
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12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #14 Symmetrical Vermont Fall Leaves
This photograph from the Field of Vision project always reminds me of
Tibetan mandalas I have seen, tapestries, sand paintings. It is an
image I have never tired of. It is on the wall that I face at our
dining tables. I look at it several times every day. I took
the photograph in Vermont, in the peak time of the fall
season. The blue in the image is a stream that was
in the background, behind the leaves. Click on
the image twice and view it close-up.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #16 Rail road, bridge and telephone pole
This picture, taken in the old industrial places in Milwaukee, invokes the remembrance
of a story having to do with the death of my dad when I was nearly 10 years old.
See Story #5 in my essay Death, Art, Writing.
The image is from my project City Places 1984-85
See also my project Makom. The word means
"the Place" where the divine or the sacred is felt to be present.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #17 from the project Emergence, Atlanta, 1973
My first teaching job after graduate school was in Atlanta, at Georgia State.
Gloria and I did not feel comfortable living in the Atlanta area but I
enjoyed team teaching with John McWilliams, and I helped create
Nexus, a photography co-op gallery. I also created some major
photography projects in those three years before I left
in 1975 to initiate a new photography program at
UW-Milwaukee. Here are the projects:
(The Georgia Woods Series)
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #18 Basement Light
The image above and the image below are from two separate
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #19 Illuminated plastic bucket, Garage
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #21 View of business buildings in downtown Milwaukee
I like photographing through windows and through venetian blinds.
Visit my three-part project Window Pictures. The mesmerizing affect
of repeating photographic images, as in the Chromatic Field image below,
or even the repetition of shapes within a single photograph, as in the image above,
is something I have explored in depth in my multi-chaptered project, Triadic Memories.
(Also see my project Symmetrical Photographs)
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #22 Old Garage with crooked top
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #23 Chromatic Field : (Garage Facade)
This Chromatic Field photograph was constructed using one image of a garage facade
(see the image below) which I had made for my 1999-2001 Garage Series project
which consisted--initially--of miniature (3.5" square) silver gelatin prints. I
think of miniature garage prints as part of the 1994-2001 Studies project.
In 2006 (three years after I started making inkjet prints) I scanned several
of the early garage series negatives and made large18x18" prints of the
images in which a relatively small garage image was suspended in a
vast space of black (which represented silence). See my blog
project Garage Series which contains both the miniatures
and the larger digital versions of the garage images.
In 2006-07 I made the Chromatic Field version of a garage image. (see #23)
The Chromatic Field photographs evolved out of my Triadic Memories
project, which explores image repetition. The Triadic Memories
project was inspired by the music of Morton Feldman. Indeed
the term "Chromatic Field" belongs to Feldman. You can
learn more by visiting this link: Chromatic Field
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #24 Windows at the entrance of a medical building (for x-rays)
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #25 Mexican Restaurant table top still life
This image, and the one below, are from my Morandi inspired three-part project Walkabout.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #26 Car dealership, coffee counter still life
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #27 Laundry sink with blue & red (bird-like) bottles & shadows
This image always reminds me of birds. The two images that follow, below
have for me a strong relationship to this "bird" image.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #28 Bird shadows & Edward Hopper's 1942 painting "Nighthawks"
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #29 Window view of Sunrise, misty morning & bird
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #30 View of sunlit windows & curtains through a door's windows
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #31 Man in a white shirt walking through a shadow
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12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #32 Snapshot (Child's Meadow Puddle Fantasy)
This is River, our Grandson, splashing in a puddle with his "frog" boots.
His splashing stirred up the puddle mud and created a fantasy
image of an animal playmate (it appears to me).
Image #33 Child's foot, purple dress, blue tape. garden hose, two leaves & (some other thing)
The "thing" next to the blue tape, (?) I don't know what it is. An object? Some hair?
Perhaps a scribble left on the table? The foot belongs to Claire, our grand daughter.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #34 Foot Print left in the blue snow
I took this photo late at night after arriving home from a trip out of town. Gloria had been
getting responses from the local police about 911 calls they were getting from Gloria's
mobil phone with no explanation. They felt obligated to check out our house, so
when we arrived pulled into our driveway, we saw footprints in the snow all
around the house and on our back deck. We got freaked out by the whole
misunderstanding. I took some "documentary photographs" as evidence
of a break-in before we called the police and learned from them all
about the "butt calls" and their search of our house. We all had a
good laugh about, but this picture always haunted me. The
blue snow had something to with the light from our front
porch, and the way my camera had been set for a
very different kind of light source.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #35 Tourists climbing rocks in the Black Hills of South Dakota
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #37 Spray-painted electrical plates (inversed)
(from my Postludes project)
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #38 Garage interior: light streaks & hat shadow
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #39 Old, cracked bar of soap in an oval soap dish
There is, for me, a pleasure in briefly describing what one sees in a photograph.
My descriptive title did not include mention of the "eclipsed moon" above
and to the right of the soap dish, nor the reflection of the underside of
the soap dish in the granite surface, nor those unknown presences
lurking in the darkness of the background, nor the strange
nocturnal-moonlit-feeling tone of the picture as a whole.
I will never stop making "thing centered photographs."
So many of my thing photographs have stories
that I associate with the images.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #40 Window shade pulled down; light streaming in next to
an unmounted door leaning against the wall.
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12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #41 (Faint photograph) Four men in suites at a wedding party
I was asked to photograph the wedding reception be a friend who had gotten
married to a woman from a wealthy family. The reception was held at the
family's house, mostly in the back yard which looked out over Lake Erie.
My friend, a poet, wrote about the sound of the waves laughing at the
entire phenomenon. He and his wife divorced a few years later. In
this version of the photograph, I threw the image out of focus and
printed it very light, just dark enough to hear the mysterious
sound of Lake Erie laughing in the background.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #42 Symmetrical Study (tree shadows & a vine on a wall)
I tried turning a miniature Studies photograph into a symmetrical photograph and was
surprised by how much I ended up liking it. I like very much. The two sides of the
shadow image look like they are holding hands and dancing together; the vine
seems to exist in its own space disassociated from the wall. ~ The image
reminds me of an illumination one might see in a hand made manuscript
produced in the Middle Ages.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #43 Triangulated & Inversed Chromatic Field (vines on a wall)
See the Triadic Memories project
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12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #44 Chromatic Field (concrete wall with dark shape)
This is one of the rather unusual chromatic fields for me because I placed the dark
triangular shapes in an arbitrary fashion on the wall. American composer
Morton Feldman created the term chromatic field, and sometimes he
would change a repeating pattern of notes in his composition that
would challenge the listener's expectations of what they would
hear next in the repeating pattern. He did this to an extreme
in his composition entitled Crippled Symmetry.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #45 Symmetrical Photograph (leaf shadows on tree trunk)
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #46 Blue Angel (Symmetrical snow drift photograph)
I have recently revised (April 2023) a project entitled Blue Angles after I printed all of
project images with my new Epson 6000P printer. The prints are large and this image
which I printed 18X20" looks stunning with its vibrant light and color textures, and
the eyes of light that stare out from the image. Its one of those images in which
the thing I photographed is now looking at me. The pictures I make, when they
function for me as True, living Symbols, are always Self Portraits.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #47 Symmetrical Photograph
"Nocturne : House Plant with bursts of starlight"
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12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #49 Symmetrical Photograph
(North Pond, Leafless Solitary Tree, early morning mist)
This image is included in one of the most interesting projects I ever had the
mysterious pleasure of facilitating into existence. Please visit
The image comes at the end of the project along with the image,
below . . . and other, perhaps more frightening images.
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #50 Symmetrical Photograph
(North Pond, early morning, lifting fog)
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12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #51 Waving Goodbye (Faint photograph)
This Faint Photograph has something to do with The Departing Landscape. Most
things--including human beings and photographs--fade when they become
over-exposed to the light of the sun. Thus. as a reminder, I conclude
this Book, and the 12x12" Studies project as a whole, with . . .
12x12 Studies Bk FOUR, image #52 Faint Photograph of a fading photograph
*
This project was published and announced
on my blog's Welcome Page August 8, 2023
revised March, 2024
(In late June, 2024 I removed some images from this collection causing brakes in the numbering)
Related Blog Photography Projects
Please visit the Welcome Page to my blog The Departing Landscape. It includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating from the most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. You will also find on the Welcome Page my resume, contact information . . . and much more.