Pandemic-inspired
12x12"Inkjet Print Photographs PROJECT
~ Finding Light In the Darkness ~
June 7, 2024
Introduction
Between January, 2020 and September, 2022 I made eighteen photography blog projects that were in various ways responses to the Covid Pandemic (and the surreal political climate of that time). Visit this blog link to see The Complete list of Pandemic-inspired blog projects.
Between January--March, 2022 I tried making a collection of inkjet prints (20 or so) which I felt represented in a concentrated way my visual experience of the Pandemic. But it became impossible to complete the project because the inks I needed to make high quality inkjet prints were not being made at that time for my old Epson 7600 printer, and then, after trying out inferior quality inks my old printer just stopped working. It's life had run its course.
I decided to buy a new Epson 6000P printer in January, 2023 and redo the project. But because of two cataract surgeries that had been scheduled months before, for January 16 and January 30, 2023, I was unable to begin re-printing the Pandemic Inkjet Prints Project until several weeks after the surgeries. When I was finally able to begin printing, I experienced a retinal tear in my left eye and then later a tear in the right eye. I have written in detail about my eyes and the ways I discovered getting the prints made (despite surgical placed bubbles in both my eyes) in my Introduction to my blog project The Pandemic Inkjet Prints Project. The project of course got completed and it consists of 25 prints, 16x20" (image size, which includes the dark tonal matte surrounding each of the images) on a paper base 18x24".
What I am presenting, here, are 12x12" (square) versions of several of the 16x20" images in the Pandemic Inspired Photographs project, with a few additional images as well. The square photograph has a long history within my Creative Process. Especially related to the 12x12" Inkjet Print Project of 2023-2024 is the 1994-2000 Studies project, and the multi-chaptered 2013-14 blog Still Life project which was created in homage to the great Italian painter Giorgio Morandi who often worked in a square or near-square format.
After I completed the Still Life project I went back to making 4x3 formatted images, and then just recently I grew rather disenchanted with the long horizontal rectangular format prints I started make in large sizes. I think the cost of paper and ink make we look closer at the longer and larger formatted images I began printing. I could see that so much of the imagery that was important to me was located in the center of the image; that the peripheral imagery on either side of the central part of the images was essentially necessary. A waste of paper and ink (and money) and an unnecessary strain on me as a viewer. I wanted to get directly to the central core of what I was seeing photographically when I clicked my digital camera's exposure button.
The reduction of the image to what is most essential to what I was seeing and feeling is related to the Think-Centered Photographs. I understood that to center my attention completely on a thing I was looking at, and photographing, needed to be placed in a square format. Its quite logical in a rather poetic way. I'm convinced that most of my best work is conceived (if unconsciously) as square images. They insist on me having a directness of vision, and the final image presented in print or a published blog project insists on this same direct engagement with the image from the viewer as well.
In short, I love the 12x12" inkjet print versions of the Pandemic Inspired Photographs for their directness, and their "economy" of means.
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The Pandemic was a very dark time for me, and certainly for most others as well. So many people were hurt--in so many way-- by the Pandemic. I lost a promised retrospective exhibition that was planned by the Museum of Wisconsin Art, which it announced publicly in October, 2019, then quietly placed the project on the back burner, where as far as I know has remained there for the past five years. I received no direct communication from the museum. I take this to mean that the Museum has not yet cancelled the original intention to have the exhibition, it just needed to be delayed for some various reason(s). (Visit my blog page Snapshots [the section near the end with the sub-heading The Larger Context] for more details about the announced Museum project.)
Gurumayi recently wrote these two brief teachings on the Siddha Yoga Website:
"Set aside time . . . to celebrate the splendor of your efforts and
the mystical workings of grace." ~ ". . . admire the
hand of destiny in your endeavors."
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The pervasive darkness of the images, their dark tones, the dark mood of the images, the dark surrounding tonal mattes around the images, all say very clearly that the Pandemic was a very challenging time. The sub-theme I kept in the back of my mind, and for all of the Pandemic-inspired projects, was "Finding light in the darkness." And through the support I received from Gurumayi, her teachings, her grace, the grace of the yogic practices and the grace of my Creative Process, there was indeed light, there always was light, and these pictures which at first look dark, are nonetheless radiant with their own interior light: the light of grace, the light of the Oneness of Being that pervades the images . . . because for me the images I chose to print 12x12" versions of function for me as True, living Symbols.
(For more information about the work, including an explanation for why I use tonal mattes around the images, and much more, see the texts I included in my original version of The Pandemic Inkjet Prints Project. To see the complete collection of 12x12" Inkjet Print Projects, including the 12x12" Books, the 12x12" PROJECTS & the LARGER Inkjet Print projects, dated 2023-2024, click here.)
(If you are viewing this blog project with a desktop or laptop computer, I encourage you to visit my blog project to learn The Best Way To View My Photography Blog Project Images.)
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The Photographs
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Image #1 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Steam on our picture window after a summer evening rain storm"
Image #2 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Two Bird: One soaring, One about to Land"
Image #3 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"A plant & a steamy window after an early morning fog over the meadow"
Image #4 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"South Meadow, Golden, stormy sunset"
Image #5 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Golden, stormy sunset light on a stone sitting on a raised bed plank"
Image #6 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Waking Up This Morning" Gold light and a Red Cup
Image #9 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Basement closet still life with spools of colored thread"
Image #10 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
A child's "Bionic Arm"
Image #11 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Symmetrical Photograph: "The Face (or Ritual Mask) of Maya, Goddess of Illusion"
Image #12 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Garage "House Curtain"
Image #13 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Basement Light, furnace room
Image #14 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Illuminated Garage Bucket
Image #15 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Roll of paper towels & shadows illuminated by a basement window
Image #16 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"A Pull string & ring, an electric cord and the corner of my Basement Studio"
The Pandemic interior images tend to be rather dark and moody. I associate this
thing-centered image with a hangman's noose. There were so many stories
of people feeling depressed and suicidal coming out in the news all the
time. The image also reminds me of the large cranes used in the
construction of skyscrapers and other tall buildings.
Image #17 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Garlics hung up to dry in our garage
I see a bird with its wings outspread and its head drooping.
Image #17a Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Hanging plants, early morning, near stairs to basement
Image #18 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Moonlit photograph : "The ghost in the corner"
(Read about my experience taking this picture in my Nocturne project)
Image #19 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Symmetrical photograph: "Blue Angel of Tears"
(Visit my Blue Angels project)
Image #20 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"North Meadow & Pond, early evening, with lights in two of the meadow's houses"
Image #21 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Mr. Blue on our basement daybed"
Image #22 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Nocturne, coffee filters on top of a water jar
Image #23 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Still life: Tape, matte knife, stapler, etc. in basement window light
Image #24 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Box of tissues reflected in our picture window early morning view of the back yard
Image #25 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Bird ascending & Rain drops on our Picture Window
Image #26 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"The Ghost Ship"
This is (for me) one of my most important photographs made during the Pandemic.
When I discovered this "still life" in our basement one early morning, I saw a ship moving
slowly into darkness carrying the many many souls of those who had died during the Pandemic.
Image #27 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Symmetrical Photograph: "Illuminated Framed Photo and house plants"
Image #28 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Shrouded bottle, scissors, pull cord, soft light of dusk from the basement window
Image #29 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Still Life: watering can, latex glove, a stone, scissors, by the basement window"
Image #30 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Foggy morning, Bird, Driveway puddle. Chatham Lane and beyond"
Image #31 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
South Meadow neighbor's back yard & early morning fog
Image #32 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
South Meadow view from our deck, fog in the background, pond in foreground
Image #33 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
"Raindrops in the form of a hand or footprint on our steamy picture window"
Image #34 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT
Still life : "Small vase with dried flowers, morning light, green bushes in the background"
Image #35 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet PROJECT Light reflected on a basement calendar
I did not really photograph anything in particular here, except some inexplicable order of things in
space that existed--in the moment--between the calendar, the lamp shade, the corner of the room
and the light bouncing around, on and off the visible surfaces. I have not centered my attention
on anything in particular, here, though it was the light reflection on the calendar (from a nearby
basement window) that ignited the desire to make a photograph (the exposure in my camera).
Image #36 Pandemic Inspired 12x12" Inkjet PROJECT Succulent Plant on Basement Window Sill
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This project was first announced on
my bog's Welcome Page on
June 6, 2024
Related Blog Project Links
How to Best View My Online Blog Images with your desktop or laptop computer.
The first Studies project (1994-2000)
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.