~ Infinity ~
Symmetrical Photographs
~ Infinite Patterns of Space & Light ~
A 12x12" Inkjet Print PROJECT ~ October 10, 2024
Islamic art is based in the theory of transcendence.
What would be a suitable aesthetic vehicle for this
ideology? The creation of patterns which carry
the implication of never-ending continuity . . .
patterns that suggest infiniteness as a
quality of transcendence.
Al Faruqui "An Islamic Perspective on Symbolism in the Arts: from the book Art, Creativity, and the Sacred
Introduction
This project is an extension of the blog project I recently published, on October 1, 2024 entitled Symmetrical Thing-Centered Photographs, (Part III of the "Thing-Centered Photographs" An 12x12" inkjet print PROJECT). I introduced that project by discussing my 2011 travel experiences in Turkey,* discovering there--quite unexpectedly and experientially--the power of Islamic Sacred Art. ~ I concluded the project with an Epilogue in which I made several references to the Infinite. In this project I wanted to expand upon the theme of the Infinite which I pursued back in 2013, in my multi-chaptered project "An Imaginary Book," and particularly the following two related chapters : Infinite Beauty" Images of Never-ending Continuity and the Text Page for Infinite Beauty.
(*Note: see in particular my Preface and the first chapter Prayer Stones if you'd like to know about the experiences I had in Turkey which inspired my two year project "An Imaginary Book." The Preface also includes a description of how I create the four-fold symmetrical photographs.)
Most of the symmetrical photographs you will be seeing in this project were made several years after I completed "An Imaginary Book," however my experiences of a divine Presence that pervaded the various forms of Sacred Art of Islam, in Turkey, still resonate within me when I look carefully at any of the symmetrical photographs I have made since we returned from that life-transforming travel-journey. As soon as we were back home I began an intense two year study about Sacred Art in general, and in particular the Sacred Art of Islam.
(See my blog project "An Imaginary Book" which includes books I read; see my blog project The Photograph as ICON, and my collection of Sacred Art Photography Projects.)
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You will notice that all of the photographs in this project have as their source imagery natural subject matter, such as leaves, trees, stones, water. This is consistent with the great Islamic Sacred Art Tradition which is dominated by imagery of the arabesque of which there are two basic types: 1) intertwined stylized vineal and aboral imagery; and 2) abstract geometrical imagery. (Note: see my project Abstract Symmetrical Photographs).
I will begin my collection of quotes on the theme of the Infinite from Titus Burkhardt's book Art of Islam: Language and Meaning:
Both types of arabesque imagery [vineal-aboral and abstract-geometrical] are an extremely direct expression of the idea of the Divine Unity underlying the inexhaustible variety of the world. True, Divine Unity as such is beyond all representation because its nature, which is total, lets nothing remain outside itself. Nevertheless, it is through harmony that it is reflected in the world, harmony being nothing other than "unity in multiplicity." But it is in yet another respect that arabesque recalls the unity underlying things, namely that it is generally constituted from a single element, a single rope or a single line, which comes endlessly [i.e., infinitely, eternally] back upon itself. Titus Burkhardt: Art of Islam - Language and Meaning
(Note: I would like to point out, here, that in the two kinds of symmetrical photographs I make, namely the two-fold symmetrical constructions or the four-fold symmetrical constructions, I use only a single image repeatedly, either two times or four times. I place the two repeated images above and below each other: and in the four-fold constructions I mirror the two sets of repeated images above & below and left & right. See my blog project regarding how I construct the four-fold symmetrical images click here. Also see my blog project Symmetrical Photographs : A Collection of Images, Projects & Texts 2022)
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As I traveled through Turkey I was most deeply moved by the Traditional forms of Islamic Sacred Art: for example, my experience of an exhibition of ancient illuminated Qur'ans; the Call to Prayer I heard many times each day echoing throughout the cities and villages Gloria and I visited; the Sufi Dancers we watched twirling--in a meditative state--to the astounding sounds of the Sacred Music of the Sufi Tradition. I read several books by Seyyed Hossein Nasr who writes with heart and passion and experiential knowledge about the Sacred and the Traditional Art of Islam:
Traditional art is concerned with beauty which is inseparable from reality and is related to the inner dimension of the Real as such - Ultimate Reality being the Absolute, the Infinite, and Perfection or Goodness. Beauty reflects the Absolute in its regularity and order; infinity in its sense of inwardness and mystery, and its demands of perfection. A masterpiece of traditional art is at once perfect, orderly, and mysterious. It reflects the perfection and goodness of the Source, the harmony and order which are also reflected in the cosmos and which are the imprint of the absoluteness of the Principle in manifestation and the mystery and inwardness which open unto the Divine Infinitude itself. Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Knowledge and the Sacred
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My two years of research on the Sacred Art of Islam introduced me to many other wonderful writers who unveiled the philosophical and sacred teachings that felt True to me and which resonated perfectly with my experiences and the teachings of Siddha Yoga which I had been practicing, with my wife Gloria, since 1987 when we first met Gurumayi. Her teachings are often focused on the Oneness of Being, the idea that everything "outside us" originates from within . . . our Hearts, or Souls, or what is often referred to as Universal Consciousness and the Supreme Self. The outer world is equally permeated with the same divine presence; and in varying philosophical yogic teachings, the outer world is an illusion created by the duality of the mind and the senses, otherwise referred to as Maya. (See my blog project Maya's Veils of Illusion).
The great English writer, Islamic scholar, philosopher and student of Sufism, Martin Lings, wrote:
The doctrine of Oneness of Being means that what the eye sees and the mind records is an illusion, and that every apparently separate and finite thing is in Truth the Presence of the One Infinite: "Wheresoever ye turn, there is the Face of God. Verily God is the Infinitely Vast, the Infinitely Knowing." (Qur'an II: 115) Martin Lings: What is Sufism?
'The Infinite or the World of the Absolute which we conceive of as being outside us is on the contrary universal and exists within us as well as without. There is only One World, and this is It. What we look on as the sensible world, the finite world of time and space, is nothing but a conglomeration of veils which hide the Real World. These veils are our own senses: our eyes are the veils over the True Sight, our ears the veils over True Hearing, and so it is with the other senses. For us to become aware of the existence of the Real World, the veils of the senses must be drawn aside . . . Martin Lings: A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century - Shaikh Ahamad Al-Alawi
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Among my most favorite writers on the theme of Sacred Art and the Sacred Knowledge of Islam and Sufism, I would recommend Samer Akkach, and his book Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam; Henry Corbin, Tom Cheetham.
The Sufi viewed imagination as the creative cause of our existence and the powerful agency that enables us to remain in contact with the Infinite and the Absolute.
Samer Akkach: Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam
There is no complete Truth that is viable to everyone. The cosmos cries out for interpretation because it is infinite everywhere and always, from the tiniest grain of sand to the greatest cluster of galaxies, from the tiniest living cell to the infant sleeping in its mother's arms. . .
Tom Cheetham: All the World an Icon
When we encounter the mystery and depth of another person, whose Angel are we seeing? In Manichean legend, when, after death, on the Bridge to the other world, the soul meets its Angel in the figure of a beautiful woman, she says, "I am thyself."
The Angel Holy Spirit is, as we know, in each case unique. Henry Corbin's Sufi mystic [Ibn 'Arabi, b.1165] "knows that he is the eye with which God contemplates himself; that he himself, in his being, is the witness by which God witnesses himself, the revelation by which the Hidden Treasure reveals itself to itself."
The person of the Angel is infinite and iconic--that is, the succession of transcendences never stops . . . The true self opens upwards, and forever.
The power of the creative imagination, the gift of Gabriel, the Angel Holy Spirit, enables each of us, if we consent, to give birth to the Angel, whose grace allows us to see all the world as an icon. For we give birth not only to God, but the world itself, transfigured in the light of a personal vision. Tom Cheetham: After Prophesy Quoted in my project Angels Part III
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In Part III of my Angels Project I wrote:
"In Henry Corbin's study of visionary recitals he writes about the great Sufi named Suhrawardi (b. 1191) who speaks of the need for the mystic traveler to pass beyond the cosmos and reach the archangelic pleroma which he calls "Nonwhere" -- the pure spiritual space beyond the "Ninth Sphere." (see quote 57 from Henry Corbin's book Avicenna and the Visionary Recital)
I had used the quote to help describe a visionary experience I had been graced with after a fall from which I had cracked my head and suffered a concussion. There is another way to speak of such mysterious things: that is, I had entered into the space of the heart, which the Sufis and Hindu Yogis say holds within it the entire universe--all of God's infinite Creation. Indeed, the space of the heart is the infinite space in which God and one's own Self are experienced as inseparable, united, One. Images which function for me as True, living Symbols are often interior visionary experiences of the Oneness of Being.
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There are many more quotes I have not included above simply because they don't directly relate to the themes 0f Infinity, Patterns & Symmetrical imagery. I hope you will explore my project "An Imaginary Book," further. (I invite you to Click here to see my blog page which includes a complete list of book and author recommendations that emerged during my research for the "An Imaginary Book" project.)
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Of course in the world of the dualistic mind, there is Time, and there is Space. In my own personal experience I know that when the mind becomes stilled . . . Space can be experienced as Infinite; Time can be experienced as Eternal. The power, the grace of a photograph that functions for me as a True, living Symbol can still my mind and unveil the ineffable Truth regarding Time & Space. (I invite you to visit my blog published essay Seeing the Grand Canyon).
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A few preliminary notes before you view the photographs
All of the images you will be seeing exist as 12x12" inkjet prints. Please visit this link The 12x12" Studies Inkjet Print Books, PROJECTS & other LARGER inkjet prints which contains all of the complete hyperlinked inkjet print project titles.
(Note: My symmetrical photographs in general benefit from being printed larger than 12x12." I have printed several of the images in this project in larger sizes and I can make most all of my symmetrical images larger than 12x12" -- up to a maximum of 21" high or wide.)
Under each of the photographs published below I have indicated (in script type) an Image # and this Project's Title; then on the next line below I provide my Title of the image (which in most cases is descriptive rather than poetic or metaphoric). When I feel that the title does not supply enough context, I will also write additional text below the Title line in an attempt to explain something about the image or my creative process that I think you (the viewer) might find useful in terms of better connecting with our understanding the the image in unexpected ways.
The tonal mattes that surround each image varies in tone and width according to what looks and feels best for the image. I enjoy thinking of the matte tone as infinite space and as an atmosphere of silence that surrounds the image and perhaps which helps you to become more receptive or empathic to what the image wants to "say" to you. Becoming silent, stilling the mind, is the best way to "listen" to an image, especially an image that is functioning for you as a True, living Symbol. (Visit my project regarding the practice of Contempating Symbolic Photographs)
There are instances in which I used a matte tone that matches a particular tone on the edge of the image area so that where that image area and the tonal matte interface, those spaces merge into each other as if the internal space of the image becomes extended into the infinite space of the surrounding tonal matte. ~ Also, there are instances in my work in which, at their original conception, I suspended an image or "thing" in a pure black space that extended to the very outer edges of the 12x12" format, then later I decided to add a slightly lighter-than-black tonal matte surrounding the interior black tone. In those cases I may have chosen to do that simply because it looked better to me in some way; or perhaps I felt the tonal transition from light-black to pure-black helped to create a more intimate space that would lead you gently into the black space.
If . . . you are viewing this blog project on a desktop or laptop computer, I want to encourage you to click on each of the images (twice) which--I hope--will give you access to an alternate blog viewing mode that presents the image enlarged and much more sharp and luminous than the image you first viewed in the blog's default published viewing mode. ~ Please read the brief statement below and, if you would like more technical information, click on the highlighted blog page title How to Best View . . . immediately below:
A brief note about "How to Best View My Online Blog Images"
If you are viewing this project on a desktop computer or a laptop, I encourage you to read my blog explanation regarding How to Best View My Online Blog Images. In brief, click on the images once, then once again; this will (hopefully) enlarge the image and present it in a dark tonal environment at its maximum viewing quality in terms of image sharpness, luminance, tonal gradations, etc. Once you have entered this alternate viewing space you can then use your zoom-in & zoom-out keyboard (or menu) options to adjust the image size, and darken or lighten your computer's screen brightness to suit your equipment and viewing preferences.
Though all the symmetrical images below exist as 12x12" inkjet prints, many also
exist in larger print sizes, such as 21x21". Some of the symmetrical
images work well in the 12x12" format, and yet in general I feel
all of them work best in larger sizes and can be printed in
larger sizes up to 21x21" on a 24x24" paper base.
~ Infinity ~
Symmetrical Photographs
Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Image #1 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
(An infinite field of illuminated leaves with a central opening, a window into another realm)
This photograph from my Field of Vision project was made in the fall of 2015 in Vermont
on a road that runs next to the beautiful brook named Broad Brook. We have become
great friends over the many years I have photographed in the brook. It seemed to
me that the light and leaves and colors conspired together all at once to insure
that my photographs would serve as a celebration of the Oneness of Being.
Image #2 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
This image has always been for me emblematic of Creation, an explosion
of light from the center outward into infinite space.
(from my "Blue Pearl" project)
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Image #3 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
A Broad Brook pool of still water, stones & colored leaves
This image is abundant with patters of dark shapes and light shapes. The image
seems to be illuminated from within, and in a way it is, though the origin of
the highlights is the sky above Broad Brook reflected in the still water.
The symmetrical images are not unlike mandalas, sacred images
used to aid in the process of meditation and contemplation.
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Image #4 : Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Broad Brook : Highlighted Stones and Shadowed Waters
The image is, for me, dark and mysterious; an abstract vision of the cosmos. I enjoy the
four line-ups of progressively larger (or smaller) three bubbles in each of the four corners, and
the blue face that spontaneously appears inside the four pairs of brightly sunlit stones.
Image #5 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Blue branches in a ground of dark reds
This nocturnal-blue image with a red center that radiates to the surrounding
space is an inversed image of a dark red plant emerging from bluish snow.
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Image #6 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
The source image for this symmetrical photograph was a photograph I made
in Broad Brook. The silvery metallic quality gives the image a special
presence, for me, similar to a religious ICON.
Image #7 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Golden Snowdrift
from my Snow Photographs from The Silver World project
This image reminds me of a visionary experience I had years ago related to a fall
in which I cracked open my head and suffered a concussion. I "saw" an angel's
outstretched wings that covered an infinitely vast space, something like a
"landscape" that was essentially nothing but horizon . . .
visit Part III of my project The Angels
Image #8 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
So many of my symmetrical images seem round, like the many mandalas
I have seen from very different cultures. In the Islamic Tradition:
The circle is the archetypal governing basis for all the geometric shapes that unfold within
it . . . reflecting the unity of its original source, the point, the simple, self-evident origin
of geometry and a subject grounded in mystery. The circle has always been regarded
as a symbol of eternity, without beginning and without end, just being.
From the book: Islamic Patterns by Keith Critchlow.
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Image #9 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Vermont : Fall Leaves
This is another photograph from the Field of Vision project. It always reminds me of
Tibetan mandalas I have seen. This image is on the wall that I face when I'm at our
dining table. I look at it several times every day. After many years, I have never
tired of looking at it; it is for me a True, living symbol. I took the photograph
in Vermont, in the peak time of the fall season. The blue in this four-fold
constructed image is a part of Broad Brook, which was hidden in the
the background, behind some colorful leaves.
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Image #10 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Yet another image made in Vermont near my beloved Broad Brook. The photographs
I made in the time we walked along the brook, maybe no more than an hour,
provided me with some of my most favorite symmetrical images.
The richness of their formal variety is simply wondrous.
Image #11 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
This Symmetrical Photograph was constructed from a photograph I made in
Image #12 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
(tree shadows & one vine on a concrete wall)
The shadows appear to be holding hands and dancing. The vines
remind be of birds flying, together, toward some determined destination.
Image #13 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Leaf shadows on a tree trunk)
Image #14 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Visit my 12x12 Inkjet print PROJECT: Picture Window / Window Pictures
Image #15 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Alcazar Pond : Fish Feeding Time
from my 1012 project: Crystalline Paradise : Moorish Spain
The forth chapter of my project "An Imaginary Book"
Image #16 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
"Khidr"
(The following poem, by Rumi, mentions Khidr)
One night a man was crying Allah. Allah.
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said, So. I have heard you calling out,
but have you ever gotten any response?
The man hand no answer for that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep
where he dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick green foliage.
Why did you stop praising? Because
I've never heard anything back.
This longing you express
is the return message.
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs no one knows the names of.
Give your life to be one of them.
(translated by Coleman Barks from his book A Year With Rumi)
To learn more about Khidr visit the Afterword in my project:
Also, I recommend Tom Cheetham's book: Green Man, Earth Angel
Image #17 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
"Nocturne : House Plant with bursts of starlight"
Image #18 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
(from my project "Creation-Dissolution of a World")
Image #18 Infinity :12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Broad Brook Road (Butterfly #3)
This symmetrical image was constructed with a photograph I took of leaves that had
been windswept into a pile on a small section of Broad Brook Road and
the tree shadows that had fallen on the road.
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Image #19 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Constructed with a stone wall that runs next to Broad Brook Road
This image is (for me) infinitely inwardly deep. (How many ways can infinity be visualized?)
Image #20 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Shadows on a large stone near Broad Brook Road
Image #21 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Marble Column, Haigia Sophia
The source image for this four-fold constructed image was a detail of a marble column
in the Haigia Sophia Grand Mosque. When I looked at the column, the luminous
infinite space within the marble was what I was imaginatively seeing. (Note: I
included this image in my Symmetrical Thing-Centered Photographs project.)
Image #22 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Patterns of light inside the Infinite space of a dark stone in Broad Brook
The stone is dark, surrounded by the brook's gushing greenish waters after a rain storm.
The brook's larger stones are banging into each other creating a sound like Thunder.
This symmetrical image unveils the infinite space inside the dark stone and the
untold numbers of living shimmering patterned points of light!
Image #23 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Broad Brook, pool (with green interior)Broad Brook, in Vermont is a very lively brook with waters always flowing downstream.
But many of the photographs I have made of the brook, its waters and stones, and
transformed them into symmetrical images, seem very still, very silent, like
this image, a luminous pool of water with great unknown depths.
Image #24 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Ancient marble Column pieces lying in a mineral pool, in Turkey
Image #25 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
from my project I Was So Happy To See My Friend's Face
Image #26 : Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Ancient Prayer Stone
Visit my "An Imaginary Book" project, Prayer Stones
Image #27 Infinity :12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Symmetrical Rock Flower (with yellow, green and red flowers in the center)
Image #28 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Symmetrical Rock Flower (with a blue crystal at its very center)
Image #29 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Sunset Lake, VT (with white limbs, blue water, green grass)
Image #30 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Sunset Lake, VT (White grass and bubbles in dark water)
Image #31 Infinity : 12x12" Symmetrical Photographs with Infinite Patterns of Space & Light
Broad Brook Stones (with two blue heart stones)
Epilogue
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The universe is infinite and it is your own Self.
See the world as a form of the inner Self.
The world is not separate from you
and you are not separate from
the world . . .
from the book Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, a SYDA Foundation publication,
writings and quotations by Swami Muktananda
The Supreme Self is eternal, permanent. It appears impermanent
only in relation to the destruction of the moment.
For a sage [like the Great Being, Bhagawan Nityananda]
no moment is ever destroyed. Each moment is
infinite. Each moment merges into eternity.
~
Time has many facets: past, present, and future. Yet, it is unending.
When time has become totally still inside you, knowledge arises
within, and you experience the Truth . . . eternal time . . .
the blissful Absolute.
Two quotes from the book Resonate With Stillness, a SYDA Foundation publication
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This project was first announced on
my bog's Welcome Page on
October 10, 2024
Related Blog Project Links
How to Best View My Online Blog Images with your desktop or laptop computer.
Seeing the Grand Canyon My essay regarding a personal experience
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.
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