Six Thing-Centered Photographs
With
An Exercise in Reading Image Juxtapositions
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#1 Thing-Centered Photographs & Image Juxtapositions Inkjet Print 18x18"
"Illuminated Light Bulb and lampshade"
#2 Thing-Centered Photographs & Image Juxtapositions Inkjet Print 18x18"
"A Box of tissues on a small table with a misty picture window a meadow and woods
in the background, colored with the warm colors of fall leaves and the light of sunrise"
#3 Thing-Centered Photographs & Image Juxtapositions Inkjet Print, 18x18"
"The Messenger" from the project Elegy.
#4 Thing-Centered Photographs & Image Juxtapositions Inkjet Print 12x12"
"Circus Elephant inside a tent pulling a heavy weight with chains"
#5 Thing-Centered Photographs & Image Juxtapositions Inkjet Print 18x18"
"Quirky Portrait of a frightened child"
#6 Thing-Centered Photographs & Image Juxtapositions Symmetrical Inkjet Print 18x18"
"Blue snow drift with an almond shape"
Abstract Symmetrical Photograph
Juxtaposition: the placement of two or more things--such as concepts, characters,
objects, or images--side by side (or above and below each other). This
technique is used to compare or contrast the two (images), highlight
unexpected similarities, or emphasize their differences in order
to create meaning, suspense, humor . . .
Merriam-Webster / internet definition
A Thing-Centered Photograph: A photograph of a thing or object in which the
primary object is placed in the center of the picture's format, which,
in my case, is usually a square.
Introduction
I have been making Thing-Centered Photographs in a conscious way since 1984-85, and I have never stopped making them, as my blog project Thing-Centered Photographs explains in some detail. One interesting problem with Thing Photographs is that even if the thing is placed in the center of the frame, it can be difficult to identify what exactly the thing is. Without a "name" for a "thing" we often find it difficult to know what to do with the picture, the object pictured, and, for example, how to identify its meaning for us.
In this brief collection of six mages there is a good variety of examples of things I am willing to include in my ongoing collection of Thing-Centered photographs. Half of them are quite obscure when I stop and really look at the images, here And, in fact, I really find that interesting, and have become use to the challenge of dealing with this issue.
The square format is of course perfect for making Thing-Centered photographs, because the place of center within a square format is very obvious to us, even if the object's location in the square is not perfectly centered because its not hard to understood that the thing I am photographing is being seen with extreme, or even intense interest simply because I have put the image not only in the "center of my attention," I have also put it in the center of the square format.
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Also, in this project I am going to try to deal with one other equally complicated, and perhaps more subtle issue. When I place two images next to each other, or in other words, when I juxtapose images within a sequential line of images--no matter whether vertical or horizontal--I usually do so with some more-or-less conscious intention, though the impulse may be so intuitively felt that I may not have a good intellectual explanation for the juxtaposition. The pleasure for me in this kind of situation is enormous, for placing two images together can unleash all kinds of new ways of seeing, and experiencing new meanings through their silent (visual) dialogue with each other.
After an initial vertical presentation of the six images, together with their titles, I will then present each picture (except the first and the last) two times, but with different pairings and with commentary on each image and each pairing of images. I enjoy this early part of the contemplation process, though it must be made clear that there is a big difference between commenting on a photograph, and the contemplation of a photograph.
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The Pairs of Photographs
~ with Commentary ~
#1 Inkjet Print 18x18"
"Illuminated Light Bulb and Lampshade"
#2 Inkjet Print 18x18"
"A Box of tissues on a small table with a misty picture window a meadow and woods
in the background, colored with the warm colors of fall leaves and the light of sunrise"
First Juxtapostion: image #1 with image #2: The image I have identified as "An Illuminated Lightbulb and Lampshade" is a wonderful display of multiple variations on the curving line. Each example, beginning with the shapes of the light bulb and lampshade, are echoed in all the other curves we can discover in the image. The warm gold color of the light pervades everything we can see in the photograph. I especially like the way the top part of the lampshade not only goes into black space, but its space merges with the dark tonal matte space surrounding the entire square image. That event was, for a long time, something that I pursued with intention in regards to my thing-centered photography project. And, you will note that images #2, #3 and #4 share that same event: the dark space in the image and the dark tones of the tonal mattes being the same identical tone, an thus their merging into each other.
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Regarding this juxtaposition's second (bottom) image entitled "Box of tissues . . ." I enjoy the bottom edge of the image, the way the black space of the matte merges with the black space of the shadow of the tissue box on the wood table, and then the space below the table, and then the ambiguity of spaces on the other three sides of the image as well. ("Where does the square image leave off ? and where does the matte's space surrounding the square image begin?").
I mentioned the warm gold light in the first image, I like the way that warm light seems to continue down into the top part of the "Box of tissues" image. You can see the warm light of the sunrise in the mist covered windows which, in part, is also partially due to the yellow and reds of the early fall leaves in the woods in the background, beyond the meadow, which is directly behind our house and which interfaces with our back yard.
I pointed out the repeating curving lines in the lamp image, and interestingly, in the second image there is a similar repetition of the square motifs and straight lines (both vertical and horizontal straight lines) recurring between the box and the square format of the picture, and the geometry of the tables and the left side of our "picture window" which looks out over our back yard and the meadow and woods beyond.
The tissue paper sticking up out of the top of the box is the most animated thing in the photograph. It looks alive, like a flame, or perhaps a bird's wings about to transport its soul into the heavens. The transparent tone and texture of the tissue on the right side is very similar to the mist on the picture window. Also, similarly, I like seeing the reflection of the tissue on the inside surface of the picture window, and its tonal similarity to both the actual paper tissue and the mist tone on the outside surface of the glass.
There is a table on the left side of the picture with glass placed on top to protect the wood surface below. I like the way the glass reflects the sky and the left side of the window frame; and I like the way the "weeping tears" of mist on the picture window in the background echoes the other vertical lines in the picture.
The tissue box itself is worthy of our attention too. I love the little "stars" on the side of the box which invoke the mystery of the universe as they are seen emerging from within the luminous shadow tones, with it's totally black shadow immediately below the box which merges into the surrounding black matte space.
In past photography projects I have often assigned a particular meaning to the black space surrounding the image, and merging into the black space within the image. The merging and continuity of the the two spaces is for me a metaphor for the yogic idea of the Oneness of Being; and black space represents Silence & Stillness which has relevance to me in terms of trying to create visual symbols related to my experience of various forms of music. And in the yogic path that I practice, Siddha Yoga, Silence & Stillness are of great significance in relation to the concept of the divine Self and the longing a yogi feels to merge or become One with That divine Presence--which in Siddha Yoga, is said to dwell in the center of every human heart.
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#2 Inkjet Print 18x18"
"A Box of tissues on a small table with a misty picture window a meadow and woods
in the background, colored with the warm colors of fall leaves and the light of sunrise"
#3 Inkjet Print 18x18"
"The Messenger" from the project Elegy ~ The Messenger
This image #3 is entitled The Messenger, and is the title photograph for the project of the same name, with the added word Elegy. If you click on the image once and then once again, you will easily see in the magnified image a figure walking in a landscape. The vertical knife blade-like reflection (of a ceiling light) in the picture frame's glass is repeated in the sky tones hovering above the tree line in the landscape behind the figure. These forms, and the figure's form also, echo the form of the tissue in the box in the #3 image above. The frame surrounding the walking figure is centered in the square format of the image, as is the box in image #3. And the frame's glass covering the photograph is similar to the picture window with a similar horizon line of the trees in the background beyond the meadow.
Again, the black space surrounding the picture, it's frame, the reflections and the figure--which occupies multiple center spaces (within the picture, within the picture frame, within the square format of the photograph)--is surrounded by black space, which for me signifies Silence & Stillness. The figure is Bhagavan Nityananada, probably India's most loved and respected modern day Siddha Gurus--one who liveed in the constant conscious awareness of his union with God, Supreme Consciousness, the divine Self.
It is said in the many yogic traditions that when the world becomes too overwhelmed by hate, anger, greed, corruption, etc., holy beings (or saints) like Bhagavan Nityananda are born into this reality to provide teachings and experiences regarding the divine Truths. In other words, they are Messengers of the Truth . . . of a divine presence that pervades all created things, and they inform us (and can through their grace actually give us the experience of The Onenss of Being, That transcendent presence or reality which exists beyond and within every created thing in this apparent dualistic world . . . including the heart of every human being.
I had a stunning mediation experience in 1987, a few months after I met Gurumayi Chidvilasananada, and received shaktipat initiation from her. After getting into a meditative state, I saw, spontaneously before me, a life size living likeness of Nityananda; then my mind went completely blank, still and silent. Then some time later (a few minutes?) I saw Nityananda again; this time he was laughing and laughing so hard he had to sit down on the ground in the bright sunlight, against a white washed building, then he rolled over onto the ground and laughed and laughed some more.
Though I just met Gurumayi and had begun a very disciplined practice of meditating twice a day, I was still carrying a lot of fearful baggage I had gotten from some meditation books I had read before I had met Gurumayi, books which warned that there were dangers in the practice of meditation; that if one went too deep into meditation, one could "loose one's self" in process. Foolishness like that.
My experience of Bhagawan Nityandanda, was--I believe--intended to send me a message of assurance that I would always be protected and guided in my meditation practice by this great saint's divine presence and his grace--for indeed that was my experience! After I experienced this Great Being's darshan (spontaneous visionary experience) I never felt fear again while meditating.
It was Bhagawan Nityananda who had commanded his great disciple, Swami Muktananda to establish an ashram in Ganespuri, India and the Siddha Yoga Path, and then take the yogic teachings to the Western World. ~ In 1982, just before Swami Muktananda passed away, he transferred the power of the Siddha Yoga Lineage to my beloved Gurumayi.
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#3 Inkjet Print 18x18"
"The Messenger" from the project Elegy
#4 Inkjet Print 12x12"
"Circus Elephant inside a tent pulling a heavy weight with chains"
This is an image I made in a circus tent that was being raised in Milwaukee, where I was living and teaching and making photographs in the mid 1980's for my blog project Family Life. The image in the blog project appears in the longer horizontal 35mm format; and in this project it appears is the square format, which is typical of most of my other Thing Centered Photographs. I like the concentrated visual nature of the square format, and I naturally place things in the center the square when I am seeing with intensity a thing that has initiated in me the desire to the make a "Thing" photograph.
There are some pretty obvious graphic similarities between this image and the framed photograph of Bhagavan Nityananda: both contain a "walking figure" and both have a vertical form that reflects an invisible light source. Also both images are dominated by black space with some similar though very minimal information in the primary Thing's surroundings or background. Also, I have a very personal association that links these two photographs together for me: it has to do with Bhagavan Nityananda's well known, odd way of walking with a swagger very much like an elephant, a swagger that many people who loved and revered Nityananda, would intentionally (and even unconsciously) walk like Nityananda, as an outward visual expression of their internal indentification with this great yogic saint.
In a wonderful book published by the SYDA Foundation, entitled Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, a beautifully edited collection of stories and essays written by Swami Muktananda in remembrance and in honor of his beloved Gurudeve Nityananda and his teachings, Muktananda (when he was a young totally devoted disciple,) humorously expressed his disapproval of those who emulated the great saint's manner of walking . . .
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#4 Inkjet Print 12x12"
"Circus Elephant inside a tent pulling a heavy weight with chains"
#5 Inkjet Print 18x18"
"Portrait of a shaken, frightened child"
In this pairing of the circus elephant photo with the shaky, vibrating image of a frightened young child, I first noticed what appears to me to be a threatening dark shape that looks like a side view of a very large human's or monster's mouth and chin, which perhaps is what the child is afraid of, what it is reacting to, or perhaps the child is reacting to the vibrations it feels of the elephant's heavy footsteps as it pulls a heavy piece of circus equipment inside a darkly lit circus tent with small bursts of starlight in the background. Perhaps the child is overwhelmed by its first experience of a living elephant or its first experience of being under a large circus tent. Perhaps the elephant is the child's mental Imaginal projection filling out a constellation of bright "stars" visible in the top part of the tent's dark canvas--like what we see when we look at a clear night sky.
The child's face is placed in the very center of the image--a negative image-- surrounded by white space with no discernible way of determining the scale or the depth of the space except the dark face in the top left corner of the frame, which really does not help us much to know where we are, except perhaps in a child's nightmare where the white space represents the Unknown.
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#5 Inkjet Print 18x18"
"Portrait of a shaken, frightened child"
#6 Symmetrical Inkjet Print 18x18"
"Blue snow drift with a vertical almond shape in the center"
Abstract Symmetrical Photograph
In this last pair of images, the "frightened child" image is paired with an abstract symmetrical photograph which was constructed with a straight photograph I had made of a blue tinted snow drift. Though the two paired images are pervaded by a dominance of light tonalities--the one, mostly white, with the image of a child's shaking frightened face in the center of the square, and only a small dark form in the upper right corner; the other, a white a vertical almond-shaped form surrounded with light blue-gray, breast-like shapes. It has just occurred to me that the vertical form could also represent the the womb in which a child experiences Union with its mother. In any case the two images contain opposing feelings: fear or anxiety & movement, vs. peace & stillness or stasis.
I often associate my symmetrical photographs, and the color Blue, with a yogic* concept often referred to as "Unitary Reality," "the Oneness of Being," "the divine Self" and "the Blue Pearl."
(*Note: I have been practicing Siddha Yoga Meditation since 1987 when I first met Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and took a two-day Meditation Intensive with her in which I received her grace (or shakti) and experienced its power of transformation. ~ After that experience, which is referred to in Siddha Yoga as Shaktipat initiation, my usual practice of making photographs became, for me, a way of "seeing with the eye of the Heart," and a form of "meditation with opened eyes" [both quotes are Gurumayi's words]. ~ Regarding the color Blue, I invite you to visit my blog project The Blue Pearl.)
The symmetrical photographs quite literally a visual representation Unitary Reality, and, when the image is pervaded by the grace, or sacred energy of my Creative Process, they attain an ineffable visual power which can transform images into what I call True Living Symbols, photographs which can open my entire being into a transcendent and transformational space which some call the Heart.
When I contemplate a True Living Symbol with "the eye of the Heart" I can often experience the transforming power of grace, for grace can still or silence my mind; grace can also help me enter my Heart in a conscious way, such that I can tap into the very palpable sacred silence and ineffable knowledge which the ancient yogic scriptures say dwells in every human Heart.
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The Four-fold Symmetrical Photographs are image constructions consisting of four identical straight photographs which have been placed in relation to each other such that each image becomes mirrored into and merged with the other--both above & below and left & right--manifesting an unexpected and entirely new image--literally a Unified Visual Field--which I hope will provide any contemplator with an experience of a living divine presence; an overflowing fountain of sacred energy (shakti).
My experience of Gurumayi's grace (shakitpat) began and concluded with a feeling of profound calm and peace pervading my entire being, there was also--at the very center of that experience--an intense feeling of being overwhelmed and profoundly shaken to the very core-center of my being by an intense feeling of a transformational process. In this regard, I must say that the image of the shaken frightened child comes surprisingly close to visually portraying that meditation experience.
*To learn more about my Symmetrical Photographs, please visit these two links: All about Symmetrical Photographs and
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Epilogue
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#6 Alt. Symmetrical Inkjet Print 18x18"
"The Witnessing Eye"
Blue snow drift with a horizontal almond shape in the center
(an abstract symmetrical photograph)
In the yoga I practice, the saints of the Siddha Yoga tradition say that every human heart is
the abode of God, the abode of the divine Self, the abode of Supreme Consciousness.
Also, the ancient yogic scriptures say that the all pervasive Consciousness is
constantly witnessing everything that is thought, felt, dreamt, said, and
otherwise experienced within Its Divine Play.
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This project was published on my blog's
Welcome Page on August 11, 2026
Related Blog Projects:
Welcome Page to The Departing Landscape blog-website which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography blog projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, Introductory texts, and more.
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