As your eyes close, the world fades from view, and time slows down to
the speed of breath. In - out. In - out. Om mani padme hum. Your
thoughts gradually flit away, like swallows darting off into the night,
leaving you silent in the shapeless black, alone but not alone, cradled in the fullness of the void. Slowly, an image coalesces, a
glimpse of another world, seen through veiled eyes.
This other world I see is one of calm and tranquility, measure and grace
and consciousness. As I become increasingly interested in Buddhism and meditation, I turn to that vast world within, looking
for the antidote to the frantic pace, ignorance, and suffering of the ordinary world.
The photographs in this series offer views of that other world - faint and intangible, and perhaps unfamiliar, but also calming
and reassuring. Some of these images are darker and more complex, like the over-active waking mind still encumbered by faults
and complexes. Other images are more light, airy, and free, as consciousness expands and afflictive emotions are replaced by
positive ones. We may even get a hint of Nirvana, where suffering ends.
I strive for a restrained feeling of grace and poise in these photographs, like the smile of the Buddha. A sparse language of
simple shapes, curves, and rhythms helps to convey the mood, reinforced by the low-contrast, light, monochrome tones of the images.
Asymmetrical compositions and objects barely glimpsed in the margins help to remind us that we're not necessarily seeing everything
- with expanded consciousness, things might look completely different. The flattened two-dimensional space further distinguishes
the world of the photograph from our ordinary world.
While I associate these images with meditation, the literal subject matter is much more humble, that of tar on asphalt.
Beauty is everywhere, often literally underfoot, and these rhythms and compositions are all around us waiting to be seen.
In some respects, these photographs are a collaboration with the workers who painted the tar on the asphalt to fix the cracks.
On the other hand, the photographs also owe a debt to artists that have come before me, including Aaron Siskind, Franz Kline,
Ellsworth Kelly, and Harry Callahan. We are all part of a vast web of cause and effect, and no one knows where the strands we add will lead...
