~ P a r t 2 ~
Window Pictures
Window Pictures
Selected Photographs from Previously Published Projects
(click on the images to enlarge)
(click on the images to enlarge)
1. & 1A. Snow Photographs : Homage to Harry Callahan
Two views through our picture-window of a flock of birds
Introduction
This second collection of window photographs was selected from several of my previously published blog projects. Under each photograph I have provided the title of the project, and then I have offered a brief description of how the window theme is operative within the image. Before presenting the 48 window pictures I want to offer a few of my thoughts and personal experiences regarding the relationships between the window, the photograph and the picture-window.
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When I look out of a window I hope to see the world in its most beautiful splendor, for in the yogic tradition the world is a form of the divine, a living creation and the very embodiment of Chiti Shakti. When I look into the pictorial space of a photographic image, I long for the experience of that, an interior revelation of the Heart, the seat of the divine Self. I am hungry for images which will unveil the sacred reality that exists within the things of the outer world, beyond the surface description of appearances. I have named this kind of image which transcends the dialectics of inside and outside the symbol. A true living symbol is the visual celebration of the Oneness of Being, an image alive and overflowing with interior radiance, with grace, with Chiti Shakti. It is grace which re-unites the corresponding interior and exterior images of the divided world into an image of wholeness, an image of the Self.
The pane of glass in a window separates the interior world from the exterior world; its two surfaces, however can become the site of magical visual events, as I have described and illustrated in the first part of my Window Pictures project. There is no end to the play of complementary opposites in this world, however the symbol is empowered to still the play and align contemplators with a greater truth. Gaston Bachelard writes about an "Intimate Immensity" in his excellent book The Poetics of Space, and in the last chapter of his book, entitled "The Dialectics of Outside and Inside" he warns:
In the unfolding evolution of the photographic medium, the black and white photograph represented a dialectic within itself; and then came the dialectic of the black&white photograph vs. the color photograph. Historically, the color photograph has also undergone major dialectical shifts: it first was used to represent fantasy, romance and surrealism; and then later the color photograph became the visual metaphor for a new Realism.
There is also a photographic image that exists between the black&white and color photograph, and you will be encountering this kind of image in collection of photographs below. At first blush such an image may appear to be black&white, but after a more careful scrutiny a subtle color presence may begin to emerge into one's awareness. (See my project The Space Between Color and Black&White)
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The pane of glass in a window separates the interior world from the exterior world; its two surfaces, however can become the site of magical visual events, as I have described and illustrated in the first part of my Window Pictures project. There is no end to the play of complementary opposites in this world, however the symbol is empowered to still the play and align contemplators with a greater truth. Gaston Bachelard writes about an "Intimate Immensity" in his excellent book The Poetics of Space, and in the last chapter of his book, entitled "The Dialectics of Outside and Inside" he warns:
Outside and Inside form a dialectic of division,
the obvious geometry of which blinds us
as soon as we bring it into play
in metaphorical domains.
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In the unfolding evolution of the photographic medium, the black and white photograph represented a dialectic within itself; and then came the dialectic of the black&white photograph vs. the color photograph. Historically, the color photograph has also undergone major dialectical shifts: it first was used to represent fantasy, romance and surrealism; and then later the color photograph became the visual metaphor for a new Realism.
There is also a photographic image that exists between the black&white and color photograph, and you will be encountering this kind of image in collection of photographs below. At first blush such an image may appear to be black&white, but after a more careful scrutiny a subtle color presence may begin to emerge into one's awareness. (See my project The Space Between Color and Black&White)
The digital color photograph has been the dominate media in my Creative Process since 2008, when my wife Gloria and I moved from Milwaukee to Canandaigua, NY. The window, however, has been a constant presence in my photography from its earliest beginnings. And since 2008 window imagery has become extraordinarily pronounced in y work, in part because our house has a picture-window which overlooks our back yard, a beautiful meadow with two ponds, and a tapering woods beyond. As a way of acknowledging and honoring the picture-window in my recent work, I have devoted the first twelve window pictures in this project to those which include or involve in varying ways our picture-window.
Looking back to my photographs made between 1956 through the late 1980's one would find only black&white images . . . and you would find lots of window images. In a book project I completed in 1965-66 (click here) at least a third of its 31 images are (in varying ways) "window pictures."
Book Project, 1965-66 click on image to enlarge
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City Places project, 1985
Our house in Canandaigua is the first I have ever lived in with a picture-window. However one of the most poignant moments in my life involved a picture-window.
In the summer of 1955, when I was nearly ten years old, my dad became very sick and had to be hospitalized. I spent many days and nights that summer with my cousin Bobby and my Aunt Lilly and Uncle Bob who were caring for me while my mom was caring for my dad in the hospital. Early one morning as I lay in bed listening to the song of a morning dove coming through the open window of my cousin's attic bedroom, I heard my Aunt coming up the stairs. She quietly asked if we could go downstairs so we could talk; she had something important to tell me. As we sat together on the living room couch, as she was telling me that my dad had passed away in the hospital during the night, I was staring out of their picture-window and focusing on a telephone pole with cross bars and lines running through them. That image has haunted my Creative Process throughout my life. See for example the image above from my 1985 project City Places.
The day before my dad died I became ill with a fever; during the night I experienced--in a delirious dream-like state--what I believe to have been my dad's last heartbeats. I have published a written, detailed account of that experience; see stories #5 & #6 in Death, Art, Writing.
In the summer of 1955, when I was nearly ten years old, my dad became very sick and had to be hospitalized. I spent many days and nights that summer with my cousin Bobby and my Aunt Lilly and Uncle Bob who were caring for me while my mom was caring for my dad in the hospital. Early one morning as I lay in bed listening to the song of a morning dove coming through the open window of my cousin's attic bedroom, I heard my Aunt coming up the stairs. She quietly asked if we could go downstairs so we could talk; she had something important to tell me. As we sat together on the living room couch, as she was telling me that my dad had passed away in the hospital during the night, I was staring out of their picture-window and focusing on a telephone pole with cross bars and lines running through them. That image has haunted my Creative Process throughout my life. See for example the image above from my 1985 project City Places.
The day before my dad died I became ill with a fever; during the night I experienced--in a delirious dream-like state--what I believe to have been my dad's last heartbeats. I have published a written, detailed account of that experience; see stories #5 & #6 in Death, Art, Writing.
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I have included five symmetrical photographs in this collection, each of which has been constructed with window "source" images. The symmetrical photograph is for me the most literal visual embodiment of Unitary Reality, the Oneness of Being. Symmetrical images emerge spontaneously from deep within my Creative Process and for me they represent and have the numinous character of the ineffable realm of the Heart. Each symmetrical photograph has a center-point--whether it's visible in the image or not--which is both the Heart of the image and its Origin.
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Thank you for visiting this second part of the Window Pictures project. Following the presentation of the 48 photographs, I have added a brief Afterword.
~ P a r t 2 ~
Window Pictures
Selected Images from Previously Published Projects
Window Pictures
Selected Images from Previously Published Projects
(click on the images to enlarge)
2. Homage to Robert Ryman, Part One
Interior reflection in our picture-window of Gloria reading under the floor lamp
3. Homage to Giacometti, pt. 4
Early morning fog on the Meadow viewed through our fogged picture-window
4. Studies : Sufism
Early morning winter scene, viewed through our picture-window,
of Gloria returning to the house after feeding the birds
5. Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 5
Metal pan with reflections of light from our picture-window
6. Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 3
Wooden blue bird hanging from our floor lamp and two lamp reflections in our picture-window
7. The Creative Process, Chapter 1
Reflection of our picture-window view of the Meadow and sky
reflected on the glass covering a framed photograph of the meadow
8. Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 5
9. The Space Between Color and Black&White
Wood bird hanging on the floor lamp with drawn shades over our picture-window
10. The Creative Process, Chapter 1
Blurred Figurative Reflection in our picture-window
11. Morandi inspired Still Life, Chapter 2
Bird deflector on the exterior surface of our picture-window and bird droppings
12. Morandi inspired Still Life, Chapter 2,
Snail climbing up our picture-window in the early evening light
13. Homage to Robert Ryman, Part Two
Oval Window and hanging towel
14. Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 5
House Plants by a fogged window looking out toward the deck
16. Zoo Photographs
Split view above and below the water line through a pool window
17. Babysitting Photographs, Part 3 : Symmetrical Constructions
Ice Crystals on a front door window
Symmetrical Photograph, Garage Window covered with Vines
19. Photography & Yoga, The Discipline of Seeing
Symmetrical Photograph, Window view of suspended stringed lights
20. The Photograph as Icon, pt. 4, The Unstruck Sound and The Created Image
Symmetrical Photograph, Wood piece in front of a window
21. Angel Photographs, Part VI
Reflection of our couch lamp in the glass covering a framed photograph
22. Angel Photographs, Part VI
Light rays on the wall behind the cloths dryer window
A Salem House, with one boarded window, next to a haunted graveyard
24. Angel Photographs, Part V!
Lamp reflections in a window at the Abbe Museum in Acadia National Park
25. Angel Photographs Part VI
View through a window, Acadia Pines Motel
Blue-edged glass table top under a basement window
27. The Space Between Color and Black&White
Rubber band on a stainless steel table top in the reflected light of a storefront window
Points of light on a wall from the venetian blinds covering a window
Light fixtures reflected in a window against a dark sky
30. Morandi inspired photographs, Chapter 10
Airport escalator, two figures, windows, reflections
31. Morandi inspired Still Life, Chapter 2
Raindrops on a window screen, cloths lines, back yard
Raindrops on a window screen, cloths lines, back yard
32. Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 3, image #9
Reflections in our front door window of hanging Christmas lights 
33. Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 3, image #6
Hanging garlic bulbs in front of curtained garage door window 
Picture frame with reflections in its glass of our front door window
Small oval hallway mirror reflecting the oval window in the laundry room
36. Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 3
37. Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 3
House Plant, sunlit window and curtains
38. Angel Photographs, Part VI
Papers taped to a plastic covered door window
39. Still Life: Morandi inspired photographs, Chapter 10
40. Still Life: Morandi inspired photographs, Chapter 10
Door windows viewed from inside a medical waiting room
View through an airplane window of the airplane's shadow inside rainbow colored circles
Bus View of hills in Turkey (#2)
43. Still Life: Morandi inspired photographs, Chapter 10
View through a skylight window
44. Monk's Quirky Music
Frost and sweat covered window behind venetian blinds
45. Monk's Quirky Music
Soaring Bird taped onto the interior surface of a storefront window
46. Dream Portraits
47. Giacometti, Epilogue
Walking Man Ascending on the exterior surface of our picture window
Walking Man Ascending on the exterior surface of our picture window
48. Portraits, Faces & Figures for the Departing Landscape
Waving Goodbye through an airport window
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Window Pictures Part II
In the past two years I have become interested in recognizing and contemplating recurring themes that have unfolded within my Creative Process over the past 60 years. Of course I paid little attention to such things when I was younger; I just kept working and looked only forward to what might become for me a next new project.
Surely, my recent interest in "looking back" and discovering recurring patterns in the prolific unfolding of my images and projects is yet another aspect of my Creative Process; it is also, I believe, an aspect of my aging and one of ways of preparing for death. I have found that looking closer and more carefully at the overarching thematic patterns in my photography has helped me become more conscious of the interior journey that has belied the various outward forms of my life and my photographic practice. It has also helped me to have a more intimate, heartfelt appreciation of and gratitude for the grace which has provided my life with unwavering guidance and direction.
On my blog's Welcome Page, following the "Gratitude" section of my Introduction, there is a section entitled Collections of Theme-Related Pictures and Projects. It consists of a listing of hyperlinked thematic titles, each of which contains links to projects related to the theme. Here are a few examples of themes particularly dear to me: Music Inspired Projects, Sacred Art Photography Projects, Death-themed Projects and Water Photographs.
Surely, my recent interest in "looking back" and discovering recurring patterns in the prolific unfolding of my images and projects is yet another aspect of my Creative Process; it is also, I believe, an aspect of my aging and one of ways of preparing for death. I have found that looking closer and more carefully at the overarching thematic patterns in my photography has helped me become more conscious of the interior journey that has belied the various outward forms of my life and my photographic practice. It has also helped me to have a more intimate, heartfelt appreciation of and gratitude for the grace which has provided my life with unwavering guidance and direction.
On my blog's Welcome Page, following the "Gratitude" section of my Introduction, there is a section entitled Collections of Theme-Related Pictures and Projects. It consists of a listing of hyperlinked thematic titles, each of which contains links to projects related to the theme. Here are a few examples of themes particularly dear to me: Music Inspired Projects, Sacred Art Photography Projects, Death-themed Projects and Water Photographs.
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While working on this second part of my Window Pictures project I noticed a particular resonance within several of the images that awakened in me a remembrance of images published in the first part of the project. In the space-between those resonate images a subtle "third" image is manifested within my imagination. This Imaginal "fruit" born of a "silent dialogue" between the corresponding images somehow adds another layer of ineffable depth to the meaning of those individual images.
I invite you to listen for these resonances as you contemplate the photographs above. If you have that experience I encourage you to become an active participant in the silent conversation.
I invite you to listen for these resonances as you contemplate the photographs above. If you have that experience I encourage you to become an active participant in the silent conversation.
This Project was posted on my blog's Welcome Page
on May 16, 2019
Visit Part I of this project: Window Pictures : Surface Traces, Reflections, Views, Revelations of the Visible and the Invisible.
Welcome Page to my The Departing Landscape website/blog includes the complete listing of my online photography projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, and more.
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