The Memory of Light
In August, 2021 I published a project entitled The Light of Memory to satisfy yet another longing to reconnect with the great Italian painter Giorgio Morandi. I feel like kindred spirits with that man! I had spent nearly two years (2013 & 2014) studying his work, reading all I could about him and his painting . . . and I received a tremendous amount of inspiration from those two years of study. At the same time I was creating my multi-chaptered homage project to Morandi, Still Life.
I have never stopped making Morandi-inspired "Still Life" photos as you will see in some of the images I have chosen to present in this project. I had often thought about making a project entitled The Memory of Light ever since I completed the earlier 2021 project The Light of Memory. I often reversed the titles in my mind--practically every time I thought about The Light of Memory. I felt it would be interesting to see what would visually emerge if I finally explored the idea, "the memory of light." ~ At last, here it is!
I had included many quotes in the earlier 2021 project about the quality and meaning of light in Morandi's paintings, all of which express a fascination with the light in Morandi's paintings in regards to the transcendent or spiritual presence the writers experienced in his work. But in addition to light, memory was an equally significant issue for many of the writers, especially those who admired Morandi's work. Here are a few quotes about his work that deal with light, time & memory:
Morandi's light never appears new . . . the overall tone . . .
is that of a first morning of the world . . . His time is a
primal one, detached from history, from
everyday life, from the temporary.
Marilena Pasquali : Giorgio Morandi, The feeling of things
Morandi's light is a light that comes into being as things do.
Light seems to be the deep breath of things."
Emilio Tadini, from a 1990 essay cited by Marilena Pasquali in
her book Giorgio Morandi, The feeling of things
[Morandi's light] was a "light of memory"
as Fellini suggested . . . rather than
the light of the moment . . .
Janet Abramowicz, from her book Giorgio Morandi : The Art of Silence
When, as a contemplator, light in a painting--or a photograph--dissolves the "present moment" for me, the picture is usually functioning as a True, Living Symbol. And for me it is the grace that is radiant in the image which transforms the function of light from simply revealing appearances to invoking deep-seated meanings, perhaps memories of important experiences of the "past" (including primal time which is detached from history). Also, it is grace which opens my Heart to the origin of all created things, that--in the yoga I practice--is ofter referred to as citishakti, the creative power of the universe, the divine Self, supreme Consciousness, Truth, God. When I look at grace-filled paintings or photographs which open my Heart, I thrive on the experience which I sometimes refer to as "seeing with the eyes of the Heart." The yogic sages tell us that the Heart is the abode of the divine Self, the Supreme Soul; and the Heart is illuminated with a most iridescent and creative force of a divine light which when experienced fully "is like coming into the center of the sun."
Here are a few quotes related to these themes from the published teachings of Gurumayi Chidvilasanada, the living head of the Siddha Yoga Path:
What is the purpose of a human life? To know God, to know the Truth.
Swami Chidvilasananda Resonate With Stillness (October 11)
The relationship between the Guru and the disciple is not a
physical relationship as such. [It is one] of light
where forms become formless, where
light merges into light.
Swami Chidvilasananda Resonate With Stillness (February 12)
Entering the heart is like coming into the center of the sun.
There is no more you; there is nothing except the iridescent force of that light.
This quote, by Gurumayi, is from Swami Shantananda's "Introduction" to his book The Splendor of Recognition.
I have been making and developing my own photographs since 1955, when I turned ten years old. After meeting Gurumayi, in 1987, and had a direct experience of her grace in a meditation Intensive, my practice of making photographs gradually merged with my practice of meditation. Light became the very heart of my creative process. I used to write often about how light can both reveal and transform appearances. After experiencing Gurumyi's grace I began speaking of a different kind of light in my creative process--the light of grace. When I experienced my photographs as "images radiant with grace" I came to realize that those images functioned for me as True, Living Symbols images alive with the "Great Light" of the Heart, the "Great Light" of the Self, the "Great Light" of divine Consciousness. A light that Gurumayi would often refer to as "the Truth."
Gurumayi said:
The knowers of the Truth perceive this entire universe as divine Consciousness. An ordinary person sees flesh and bones, dust and gold, and is overwhelmed by various emotions. To the enlightened perception, however, all these are merely different waves in the one ocean of Consciousness. . . . All of life is grace. The entire universe has sprung forth out of the divine mind, divine Consciousness. From a talk Gurumayi gave on June 29, 1989 entitled The Sands of Time published in issue #115 of Darshan (a SYDA Foundation monthly publication)
Here is another quote by Gurumayi on the them of Truth and Light:
Truth is more than just being honest. It is more than not telling lies, more than
being open with others. Truth is recognizing the great light that exists in
everyone at all times, in all places. ~ In Siddha Mediation, the light
of the Truth is kindled by the [grace of a Meditation] Master, and
[with that grace] you learn to perceive the world through
its radiance.
This excerpt is from Resonate with Stillness (July 22)
*
I have presented below photographs from my Complete 2023~2024 &2025 Inkjet Print Project which I associate with the theme of this project, The Memory of Light. Choosing the photographs was not, of course, a heady exercise; just the opposite. Often when one of my photographs is functioning for me as a True, Living Symbol it will invoke within me the remembrance of the light that moved me deeply enough to make the photograph. There is for me in this remembrance of light a heart-opening feeling of the recognition of a deeper Truth, a "wisdom of the Heart," knowledge that transcends dualistic reality, the outer appearances, the human ego and intellect.
True living Symbols get me in touch with the very foundational bases of my being. The ancient yogic teachings of Kashmir Saivism refer to this kind of experience as Pratyabhijna-hrdayam* which can be translated in various ways: in terms of Light, the sacred space and sacred knowledge with dwells in the Human Heart, and citishakti (defined below**):
". . . the light of the recognition of the knowledge of the Heart. . . "
". . . the light of the Self reflecting on itself, always turning to its own rapturous presence as the only knowledge that exists."*
". . . In the impeccable space of our own Heart . . . light shines on light, every action is an act of worship, and all perceptions are forms of meditation."*
". . . the world [appears] as the play of light and shadow enacted by citishakti."**
*These quotes were taken from the published writings of Swami Shantananda, one of Gurumayi's Siddha Yoga teaching swamis. See the last chapter of Swami Shantananda's book The Splendor of Recognition, An Exploration of the Pratybhijna-hrdayam : a Text on the Ancient Science of the Soul.
**Citishakti" is another name for grace, the creative power of universal Consciousness, Siva, the divine Self.
* * *
All of the images in this blog project exist as either 18x18" or 21x21" inkjet prints made in the past two years during which time I have been working on a major project entitled The Complete 2023~2024 (and 2025) Inkjet Print Project. Under each image I have stated the project's title and Image #, some kind of a title for the image (poetic or descriptive), and below that I have, for most of the images, provided some written commentary.
Welcome to the project. If you are new to my blog projects, and are viewing this project with a laptop or desktop computer, I encourage you to read the following statement and then perhaps the link I've provided for additional information:
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The Memory of Light
Photographs
Please note, due to multiple post-publication editings the image numbers in some cases may
not appear in their expected sequential order, but nevertheless an order that I intended.
The Memory of Light Image #1 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
"The Memory of Light In An ancient Cave"
Our grandchildren were playing with water base paints during the Christmas Holidays; and they
left traces of their play imprinted upon the interior surface of our picture window. My wife
Gloria and I decided to leave the faint imagery on the glass for a while to remember our
grandchildren playing together. ~ Over time the images faded and I forgot about the
images until one day in the following spring, the early afternoon sun light hit our
picture window at just the right angle to illuminate the images they had
left on the glass. The images seemed to glow as if self-illuminated.
I associate the imagery with ancient cave paintings I have seen
published in various books and magazines.
The Memory of Light Image #2 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Inkjet Print (24x24"base)
(Autumn Leaves Under Water at the Brattleboro Marina)
The Memory of Light: Yes, I must say that there are moments of recognition while I am
out in the world photographing with my camera. Edward Weston referred to those
epiphanic moments as The Flame of Recognition. In this case my brother-in-law
who lives in Vermont was driving me to water places he thought might offer
interesting photo possibilities. I walked out on a ramp into the bay at the
Brattleboro Marina and when I looked down into the dark waters I saw
glints of light and red colors in the water which reminded me of fire.
I saw no formal reason to take the picture, other than the mystery
of the flickering red light in the shallow dark waters.
This image presented a second epiphanic moment, later, when I was trying to see
if the image I took that day in Brattleboro could be used to make a symmetrical
photograph, an image constructed with four identical images. It is always an
act of faith, trust in the grace of the four-fold symmetrical process which has
provided me with gifts without a clue beforehand. ~ As I worked with the
image I became amazed with what my process offered me. And here
it is! A hauntingly strange, darkly luminous-fiery image in which, at
its very center, there appeared--spontaneously--a Blue Angel !!
Visit these two blog links: Symmetrical Photographs &
The Brook: Brattleboro - section "Four Readings" - Image & Reading #4
(Golden sunset-lit clouds over the North Meadow, its Pond and the woods beyond)
This image is pervaded by what I like to call divine or Angelic presence. At the
same time it invokes--with great respect and gratitude--the remembrance of
Alfred Stieglitz and his "Songs of the Sky" a series of cloud photographs. I
recognized the mystical power of Stieglitz's nearly abstract photographs
in my Freshman year at RIT, Rochester, NY. He called those images
equivalents and they remain an unwavering source of inspiration
for me today.
The Memory of Light Image #9 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Square Inkjet Print
(Golden Apparition in the Vermont Woods Over Broad Brook)
This image, too, has (for me) "Angelic Presence." The realm of Angels is fascinating
and very real to me, thanks to my reading and contemplations of the writings
of Henry Corbin and Tom Cheetham. I invite you to take a look at a
collection of text excerpts from their writings. The link is
Part IV of my multi-chaptered project The Angels.
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Blue Angel of the Window (See my project Blue Angels)
Windows are a very special "place" in that they provide surfaces to both the "inner"
and "outer" worlds. In the first image in this project, our two grandchildren
left their marks on the interior surface of the glass, and when the light
was right, the illumination from the outer world made the marks
appear to us dwelling inside our house. In this image I believe
--though I am not sure-- that I photographed a reflection in
some surface that was close to a window that looked
out over the meadow behind our house. The image
is a mystery to me, a haunting gift.
The Memory of Light Image #11 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Square Inkjet Print
"The Blue Angel of Tears"
The Memory of Light Image #43 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Inkjet Print (24x24"base)
Rock Flower (with a blue crystal at its center)
This is but one of several "Rock-Flower" symmetrical photographs I have made.
Symmetrical images are constructed with four identical images which are
conjoined such that two of the images are mirrored with each other
above & below, and left & right. This image in particular invokes
the remembrance of two verses in Sri Guru Gita, a text which
consists of 182 verses in praise of the Guru principle. My
wife and I chant it regularly. Here are the two verses
(in English translation from the Hindu) that relates
(for me) to the symmetrical image above:
The Guru, who is higher than the highest, who always bestows grace
and bliss, and who is seated in the center of the space of the heart,
shining like a pure crystal, should be meditated upon.
(verse 113 Shri Guru Gita)
Just as the image of a crystal is seen in a mirror, so the bliss,
which is consciousness, is reflected in the Self and
the realization comes, "Indeed, I am That."
(verse 114 Shri Guru Gita)
The Memory of Light Image #3 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Still Life
(A rack of old spools of colored thread & storage containers hidden away within a basement closet.)
Old things seem to absorb my life experiences and resonate for me in a way that
motivates me to make a photograph. It's as though I can recognize something
of myself in the objects or places, and as I have said earlier they often
seem alive, radiant with their own light that seems to call out to me.
The Memory of Light Image #4 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
"A young boy admires and displays his rainbow-colored bionic arm and hand"
The Memory of Light Image #5 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
(Glass covered end table, plants, ceramic lamp base)
Visit my project Approaching Abstraction
When I am photographing I often respond to the forms and structures which the light reveals.
The world is a great light modulator. Somehow light creates spaces that, despite their
lacking physicality nonetheless seems alive with a living presence.
The Memory of Light Image #6 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Still life: Sunlit glass of water on painted fruit tablecloth
I like enlarging this imaging (or getting close to the print) so I can see the refracting light
within the circle of water inside the glass near the top. The refracted light inside
the water / glass is then projected down upon the tablecloth and illuminates
the the interior space of the shadow of the glass with an enlarged
version of the same shapes of light inside the top circle of
water. Circles within circles: light within light.
The glass of water sits in front of a large
circular soup bowl transformed by light
and shadow shapes which seem to
swirl around the glass of water.
The Memory of Light Image #7 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
The warm light from an electric Christmas Candle; a vine plant with green leaves; the
edge of an outside door illuminated by the blue light of a winter's evening sky.
The Memory of Light Image #10 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
(Gold-luminous stone on a wood plank)
So many of my "Thing Centered Photographs" were initiated by the way light
illuminated them. In this case the light seems to glow from inside the stone.
Self-luminous is a term I like to use for this phenomenon. ~ Objects
seem often to have something they are trying to say to me. After
the picture is made, I will contemplate the image by absorbing
it deep into the inner depths of my being . . . where a
silent dialogue can unfold uninterrupted. (Visit my
blog page Contemplating Symbolic Photographs.)
The Memory of Light Image #13 Symmetrical photograph 21x21" Square Inkjet Print
(The Burst of Light inside Snow)
The Memory of Light Image #14 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Illuminated Spider Webs (Visit my project In the Woods)
The Memory of Light Image #15 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Lake Series Photograph, Dark Winter morning with a blast of creation-light
This image has an abstract primordial quality that I associate with the creation of our world.
It is a nocturnal image: the sun is a moon and also the eye of some strange animated
living creature rising up from dark waters illuminated by a blast of light from who
knows where? (The light is from a leak in my camera which fogged
the roll of 120 film just as you see it here.)
The Memory of Light Image #16 18x18' Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
"Dark Wave" from the The Lake Series
The Memory of Light Image #17 18x18" Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Yellow-Green River with tree shadows
This image has a dream-like wistful quality of time stopped, plus the space,
light and shadows I associate with memory. I know that sounds vague,
but then . . . so is the image.
The North Meadow with illuminated foreground, a dark middle ground and the warm sunlit
clouds of an early summer evening evening with a blue sky.
The dark space in the middle of the photograph looks void of any physical presence
though I can imagine the clouds having risen up from that darkness.
The Memory of Light Image #19 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
View of the houses surrounding the meadow on a foggy morning as the sun was rising.
My wife and I live on the edge of a beautiful meadow with two ponds in it. I have
been photographing the meadow, ponds & the tapering woods beyond since
we moved to Canandaigua, NY from Milwaukee in 2008. This image
is from one of my most favorite blog photography projects which
involves the meadow. (visit Creation-Dissolution of a World)
The Memory of Light Image #48 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Inkjet Print (24x24"base)
The Memory of Light Image #56 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
"Ghosts in the Alaska morning sunlight in the Anchorage International Airport"
The Memory of Light Image #49 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
"Ghost Ship" (Still Life from my Pandemic Inspired Project)
My Pandemic Inspired Projects tend to be dark as if the apparent world is rising up from
the darker tones. I found this "still life" in my wife's ceramic studio illuminated by
the soft light of early morning. I imagined the bowl was a ship transporting
all the people who had died the day before--during the Pandemic--to
another world.
The Memory of Light Image #20 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Still Life: Shrouded Object
(from my Pandemic inspired project Elegy)
The Memory of Light Image #28 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
House Plant, looking out of the fogged window toward the South Meadow
A Pandemic Inspired image. I enjoyed photographing in the early morning light,
after meditation, before Gloria woke up. Everything in the house would
seem to be alive in those moody mornings when there was mist or
fog and the ambient light of the sun about to rise.
The Memory of Light Image #21 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Reflection of light on a wall calendar (a Pandemic inspired image)
I remember the very first image I made (consciously) of a glint of light reflecting off of
an object or surface. It was the summer of 1972; I was walking on the sidewalk near
the house we had rented in Decatur Georgia after I got my first teaching job, at
Georgia State University, Atlanta. The sunlight was being reflected off of
the shiny metal surface inside a soda bottle cap laying on the sidewalk.
I have continued to photograph such things today if for no
other reason than to consciously acknowledge the light
and the memory of that flash of light which
insisted that I make the photograph.
The Memory of Light Image #34 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Young Boy and the luminous Universe reflected in the dark waters
(The above image is from the early 1994-2000 Studies project)
The Memory of Light Image #57 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21 Square Inkjet Print
(Broad Brook, a pool of Green stones & a circle of bright glints of light)
~The secret you told, tell again.~
There is always a secret that must be told,
and when it is, the two go wandering off together.
That wandering is the clearest direction. The door
that opens then is like "the night ocean filled with glints
of light." We are the space between fish and the moon, while
we sit here together. This companionship opens them
out of quietness into "long stories and singing."
What is real is this friendship, and their
voices rising into the dome!
Rumi
translation by Coleman Barks
from his book An Exalted Sky, Exulting
The Memory of Light Image #22 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Still life: Dried plant in ceramic vase, illuminated by a brilliant angular light.
This kind of light (an its shadows) always seems to make things appear surreal, or super
real. . . like a memory etched in one's mind that must be revisited over and over again.
The Memory of Light Image #23 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Steamy, tearing picture window, early morning fog and rising sun softly illuminating the
N Meadow & its ambient light illuminating a Still life "arrangement"
(the long row of tomatoes ripening on the window sill)
The picture window in our house looks out over our back yard and the meadow, ponds and
the tapering woods beyond. The picture window is like a living ever-changing photograph
or perhaps the lens of a large view camera. It is also the site (and sight) of many
photographs made of the meadow or with the meadow serving as a backdrop.
The Memory of Light Image #24 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Streaks of Light coming from under a fiery red dark evening cloud over the South Meadow
The Memory of Light Image #25 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
(Late evening, golden-red rolling storm clouds over the North Meadow & pond)
This picture is for me like a dream of something I had seen in waking moments.
My dear friend Larry likes this image very much. He will not tell me why.
The Memory of Light Image #26 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
South Pond, meadow and Storm Clouds in the distance viewed through our
picture window (with internal reflections of our living room fireplace)
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The Memory of Light Image #27 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Plastic veil over a potted plant on a basement window sill
Visit my project Maya's Veils
The Memory of Light Image #29 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
"Persephone's attachment to her mother and the Earth"
Visit The Persephone Series
The Memory of Light Image #30 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
"Persephone, startled by the unexpected appearance of Hades, God of the Underworld"
The Memory of Light Image #31 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
(Light and leaf shadows on the side of a garage with drain pipe and light pole on the right edge)
This image, from my Steve Lacy project, is for me a visual metaphor (or equivalent)
for the primordial music of jazz master of the soprano saxophone, Steve Lacy.
The Memory of Light Image #32 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Blue Light on an old coat rack (in the basement of a house about to be remodeled)
At first I didn't know why I was making this photograph. I didn't like the color
of the wall or coat rack, but then later I understood: the blue light from a
nearby window was what sparked my attention.
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The Memory of Light Image #33 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Our grandson, River, walking in a Blue River Dream
(" Mythic Bird" from my project "In the Woods")
The light in this image is internal; I made this image inside a dark Georgia woods.
The "bird" appeared after I solarized the image as it was emerging during the
print's development. ~ The solarization transformed the entire image into
this unexpected mythic bird with a luminous eye in a dark timeless world.
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The Memory of Light Image #36 18x18" Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
(Faint Photograph, Bull in foggy landscape with a tree limb
that resembles a blade above its shoulder)
In many ways this image--and most of the Faint Photographs--could be about "The
Departing Landscape" (the name of my blog). The bull could represent nature
which is being threatened by man's disregard for the well being of the
natural world. The next few images are also from
my "Faint Photographs" series.
(Fisherman in the Fog on the Milwaukee Shores of Lake Michigan)
The illumination in this image amazes me; in part because it's not the light I remember
seeing when I made the image many years ago. . . In any case I love the
image and its presence of light that is --for my-- other-worldly,
transcendent, mystical . . . Walking about looking for
photographs to take is very much like fishing, very
much like walking around in a state similar to
meditation.
The Memory of Light Image #38 21x21" Square Inkjet Print (on 24x24"paper base)
(A Beloved Person's Luminous Presence)
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The Memory of Light Image #39 18x18" Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
"Waving Goodbye"
I was wondering what I could write about this photograph which I made for
Nathan Lyon's home workshop in 1965 or 66 while I was going to RIT
full time. Nathan was concerned that I made so many photographs
of people in isolation. Indeed I had been very impressed by the
book Dialogue with Solitude by Dave Heath at the time.
Nathan asked me to photograph people interacting with each other, so I got
the idea of going to the airport in Rochester and photographing people
meeting each other after getting off the arrival plane.
It just occurred to me that this picture could be about my dad's death when
I was almost 10 years of age. I never got to see him before he died
that summer of 1955. He had been in the hospital a long time
before he died. ~ I just saw the image of the male figure in
the center of the image as me, as a college student, standing
next to my mom. ~ I had never before considered that
the figure standing to the left of me was also standing
behind me. It has just occurred to me that the man
behind me was my dad's spirit. Indeed he is, of
the three figures pictured, the most luminous,
perhaps watching me and my mom.
The Memory of Light Image #40 18x18" Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Bus Window View of shepherds gathered on a hill in Turkey
The blue color overlaying the shepherds in the landscape was a shadow cast over the
buss window. I did not see the color when I took the photograph; it was a gift
of the sensors in my digital camera. I often speak of gifts in association
with strong images that just seemed to come into my process without
my conscious intention. Its another way I like to acknowledge
the grace of my creative process, a presence that I feel is
always there for me, hiding in the background like
the large cloud of light in this image.
The Memory of Light Image #41 Symmetrical Photograph 18x18" Inkjet Print (20x24"base)
Ice-covered Bush at Sunrise
(from the project Silver World)
The Memory of Light Image #42 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Inkjet Print (24x24"base)
(Translucent Vermont Leaves)
I saw the light in the leaves, but I did not see this image coming. Its remarkable
circular composition is a gift of the grace of my Creative Process and
The Memory of Light Image #44 Symmetrical Photograph 18x18" Inkjet Print (20x24"base)
(Landscape with two setting suns)
Most of the symmetrical photographs are made simply with a sense of possibility
that only experience can provide. I try applying my four-fold process to
a straight photograph that feels as if it holds a promise, and then I wait
to see what the process gives me. This image was constructed with
a straight photograph of the meadow.
The Memory of Light Image #45 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Inkjet Print (24x24"base)
" Luminous Butterfly Wings" or "An Illuminated Garden Path"
This image is the second version of a symmetrical construction using the same straight
image in a different configuration. I felt the first version was only slightly successful.
Then a few weeks later I got the intuitive hit to try another variation. This image
is by far more successful than the first.
I seldom offer two titles for a photograph. It just occurred to me that it is
particularly appropriate in this case, but "Luminous Butterfly Wings"
is my preferred title.
The Memory of Light Image #46 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Inkjet Print (24x24"base)
(Two Blue Broad Brook Stones)
The Memory of Light Image #47 Symmetrical Photograph 21x21" Inkjet Print (24x24"base)
Golden Winter morning light--symmetrical image with a blue center
(see my Baby Sitting project)
The Memory of Light Image 54 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
(Part of a Lamp shade, and an infinite number of fading shadows on the wall behind it.)
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The Memory of Light Image #52 18x18" Inkjet Print (20x24"base)
Still life: Old Peach on a line
This image (and the next three images) are "Thing-Centered Photographs"
. . . dark against a white field, white against a black field . . .
The light in this image is so crystalline sharp, blindingly intense, very close to what I remember
seeing and experiencing, when I took the photograph. ~ I like the black matte surrounding the
image, the way it is visually connected to the peach, its shadow, the line on the table, and
the upper right corner shape of the image which literally merges into the black matte.
(Boy with Bat & Ball in a flash of light)
I was out photographing in our neighborhood near the University on the east side
of Milwaukee, and I happened to see this boy playing with his bat and ball as I
crossed the alley he was playing in. ~ The sun was behind him, low on the
horizon. Just as he was swinging his bat at the ball I took this photograph.
Very strangely, when I clicked the shutter I experienced an intense flash
of light! Light that penetrated my whole being!
I was able to make a print of the film negative that was essentially what I
had experienced in that moment, "The Decisive Moment," a phrase
used by the great Henri Cartier-Bresson, that certainly applies
to this image for me.
I used to present a slide show to my students with an audio tape
in which Cartier-Bresson talks about his work. I found a video
version of the talk online! ~ See the video here
I never tired of showing it to my students.
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The Memory of Light Image #51 18x18" Inkjet Print (20x24"base)
Luminous Glass of Iced Lemonade, a woman's hand & her wrist watch
A Hammer laying in a puddle that is reflecting the light of the sky in the shape of a saw
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Epilogue
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The Memory of Light Image 55 18x18 Square Inkjet Print (on 20x24"paper base)
Symmetrical Photograph : Luminous Picture in a frame surrounded by dark house plants
The picture frame, emitting a brilliant light which provides an ambient illumination
for the dark plant forms and shinny metallic beads surrounding it,
is so very luminous perhaps because it represents the sum total
of illumination from within the many photographs included in
this project merged into the One image within the picture
frame. This numenous symmetrical photograph
--in its own unique way--is about the great
mystery that I like to call
the Oneness of Being.
I have never really experienced this phenomena in such a dynamic way before. I think it has occurred because I have had lots of time over the years to come to terms with those individual images which I have come to deem as "favorites," and in the process of narrowing the field of images I wanted to make inkjet prints of, it was easier to choose images that have been my favorites for an extended period of time.
In any case, though that has been a privileged insight for me--as the maker of the images--I suspect if you were to look at a good number of my conceptually titled Inkjet Print Projects you may discover a similar kind of revelatory experience of layered meanings that can exist in any of the individual images which have repeatedly stood out for you.
*
I want to conclude this project, The Memory of Light, with a few quotes from The Splendor of Recognition, Swami Shantananda's exploration of the Pratyabhijna-hrdayam, an ancient yogic text of Kashmir Saivism. The Splendor of Recognition is a wonderful book, which consists of swamiji's deep modern day contemplations on the 20 very brief ancient sutras, yogic teachings.
In the first sutra we are taught that Consciousness (citi) and Light are one and the same. Consciousness is light, but not the light that can be seen with the eyes; rather it is the "light by which eyes see." This particular aspect of Consciousness, associated with light, is known as prakasa, the "capacity of Consciousness to illuminate and reveal, to make things appear and manifest." This luminosity, we are to understand, is "the raw material of creation. What we perceive . . . is nothing but a manifestation of "the Great Light," the Light of citi, the Light of Consciousness, the Light of prakasa. Thus, as Swami Shantananda explains, "our very perception of the universe is an act of creation. This means that the world of our experience, the world in which we live and act and feel, is our own manifestation."
* * *
The Memory of Light &
The Light of Contemplation
Making photographs is the first step of my creative process; the second step is the contemplation of the photographs I have made; and, most importantly, and in particular, those images which are functioning for me as True, living Symbols. Memory can play an important role in the process of contemplation, and the way I contemplate images is directly related to my practices of Siddha Meditation.
Through the act of remembering an image I had made while in a deep mode of open-hearted contemplation (a state of mind very close to meditation), I can carry that image deep inside me to that most sacred space the yogic often refer to as the human Heart. In the vast, infinite space of the Heart I absorb the image in a fully conscious, grace-filled heightened state of awareness. If the image is functioning for me as a True, living Symbol, I experience the re-union of the grace (the divine Light) within the image with the grace (the divine Light) that pervades my Heart, that interior, infinite divine space of the Self.
An image which is functioning for me as a True, living Symbol is the visual embodiment of grace, an image radiant with grace. And it is grace which is the means by which I gain access to my Heart, the abode--the yogic saints tell us--of everyone's divine Self. The experience is that of Light merging with Light; the experience of the Oneness of Being.
To summarize, and to say this in a slightly different way: It was the grace, the Light of Consciousness that initiated the creative process within me to make a photograph that functions for me as a True, living Symbol; it was grace which transformed the photographic image into an image radiantly alive with the light of the divine Self; and through the grace of the process of contemplating symbolic photographs within the sacred light that pervades the Human Heart, One experiences the ineffable merging of Light with Light.
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I will conclude this project with the words of a Siddha--a fully enlightened Meditation Master--Gurumayi Chidvilasanada:
Entering the heart is like coming into the center of the sun.
There is no more you; there is nothing except the iridescent force of that light.
The relationship between
Guru and disciple is one of light, where forms become
formless, where light merges into light.
*
This blog project was announced on
my blog's Welcome Page
March 4, 2025
Related Blog Project Links
Published December 2023, 2024 & 2025; this is a revised and updated blog project page dedicated to all of my recent Inkjet Print Projects. The link (above) includes the following 21x21, 18x18, 16x20 & 12x12" collections of inkjet prints and more
This link includes all of the 12x12" Books and Thematic Projects such as:
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.
the next published image should be # 58
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