RYAN BUSH PHOTOGRAPHY
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The Music of Trees
by Ryan J. Bush, Ph.D.
with a foreword by Katherine Ware, Curator of Photography, New Mexico Museum of Art
108 pages, 55 full-color photographs
Book dimensions: 12" x 11 3/4"
ISBN #978-0-9993930-0-0
Available from Amazon and select retailers
Retail price: $65.00 US
Published by Beyond Editions
"With all the challenges we face in our modern, chaotic world, it is easy to get too distracted by materialism and superficiality, to be too daunted by obstacles, or to feel too busy to do more than just survive. So, we need as many reminders as possible that there is more to the world than meets the eye. Everything we need to know is whispered in the music of trees."
-- from The Music of Trees
"The influence of music on the work is strong, and the artist seeks to bring a musicality to the visuals. This intention is evident in the images’ palpable internal tempo. These photographs resound with beats of movement and stillness, always conveying the sense of something captured but not arrested. A book of great vision and continuity, The Music of Trees orchestrates a journey from the admiration of beauty to a place that vibrates with its own internal frequency."
-- excerpt from Foreword Reviews, Nov./Dec. 2018
I have always been drawn to trees, since growing up in Michigan next to a vacant forested lot that I loved to explore. For more than twenty-one years, trees have been a favorite subject of my photography, so it is only fitting that my first monograph is devoted to trees. This book features three of my series of tree photographs, Tree Portraits, Memoria, and Multiple Visions, each of which played a seminal role in my growth as an artist.
The first of these three series,Tree Portraits (2004-2007), shows how my work evolved from relatively representational images of trees, but gradually became fully abstract, helping me find my voice as an abstract photographer.
The second series, Memoria (2011-2013), uses multiple exposure photographs to depict not the physical form of the tree, but an experience of the tree, a type of ‘inner’ reality.
And finally, Multiple Visions (2012-2013), takes the multiple exposure technique into large-scale works filled with vibrant, all-over patterns of color, like finding Abstract Expressionist canvases in the middle of a forest.
These three series of photographs also reflect three different ways of seeing — from relatively representational images that are closest to our ordinary way of seeing (in which we may barely notice things around us as we rush around multitasking, or are caught up in our thoughts), to the imaginal world of creativity, intuition, and the psyche, and the visionary world of connection with everything that lies beyond our ordinary selves. Throughout, this book points to a way of being, inspired by the quiet, resolute power of trees, that can help us meet any of life’s challenges.
When we slow down and listen to the music of trees, who knows what mysteries we will uncover?
The book includes a foreword by Katherine Ware, Curator of Photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art, and an introduction by Ryan J. Bush.
Available on Amazon and at select retailers.
A Singing Wire
Duets of Poems and Photographs
by Virginia O. Bush, MA
and Ryan J. Bush, Ph.D.
162 pages, 69 full-color images
Book dimensions: 6" x 9"
ISBN #978-0-9993930-1-7
Available from Amazon, Bookshop Santa Cruz, and other retailers
Retail price: $26.95 US
Published by Beyond Editions
This collaborative book features poems by Virginia Bush and photographs by Ryan Bush, a duet across decades as their work indirectly influenced each other over the years. Images and text are presented on completely equal footing, rather than one overshadowing the other. In this way, the book presents a model for how we can relate to each other in harmony and cooperation, combining our individual strengths into a greater whole, rather than the me-first approach that runs rampant in our modern world.
What others are saying about A Singing Wire:
"There is magic in this mother-son duet. The poems walk the earth, are heartbeat and the passion of memory. The images float, are luminous patterns, sensuous flower and plant forms, sky-lit trees. They sing in harmony or in contrapuntal melody. They delve deep into the mythic, rise high into the mystic where “each moment slips its shining noose/around infinity.” A Singing Wire is a wonder and an enchantment. Immerse yourself in it, your soul will thank you."
— Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, Author of The Rabbi, the Goddess and Jung, and The Faust Woman Poems
"The Bushes are imminently gifted in their respective crafts, and their collaboration resonates with an extreme generosity of spirit and a true desire to welcome people into a more expansive experience of the world—one that, like poetry or visual art, “is a human concern, one that should speak to a shared humanity.”"
— Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers, Foreword Reviews July/August 2019
"By pairing poetry and photography, the written word and the visual image, A Singing Wire allows us to experience a rich emotional journey, with harmonies strengthened by the lifelong interaction of mother and son."
— Deborah Klochko, Executive Director and Chief Curator, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
"Art making, while often a solitary endeavor, does not exist in a vacuum. This beautiful collaboration between poet and photographer, mother and son, artist and artist, is a poignant example of how seamlessly and successfully disparate art forms can combine to create something altogether new."
— Cathy Kimball, Executive Director, San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art
From Wandering To Illumination
The New Eleusinian Mysteries
by Ryan J. Bush, Ph.D.
This book weaves together my 3-D multiple exposure photographs of trees, along with the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries (which were effective for thousands of years at introducing people to the mysteries of our true nature, and that of the world), and our modern effort to reconnect with soul on both the personal and collective levels. A pair of red/cyan 3-D glasses is included to help immerse ourselves in the images and the experience.
The photographs progresses from black-and-white photographs of bare trees in winter, representing the state of ‘Wandering’ (the ordinary consciousness of our ego, monkey mind, grasping mind, or the lower level of functioning when we’re in the grip of strong emotions, suffering or dysfunction), to color photographs of trees in spring, representing the state of Illumination or awakening.
Just as Persephone was taken away to the underworld, and Demeter wandered the Earth looking for her daughter everywhere, we face a similar loss of soul today on both the personal and collective levels. Our world is very much lost and wandering, with all the mass shootings, corporate greed running amok, infatuation with strongmen, etc.
Fortunately, if we realize that we’re Wandering, it really is possible to wake up. It’s time for us to drop the veil that has kept these mysteries hidden in esoteric symbolism, locked behind the doors of monasteries, and only taught to the chosen few.
The Postscript of this book outlines twelve techniques that can help on our journey, including how to ground, balance, and tune ourselves. These tools can help facilitate awakening, but can be useful in our daily lives as well. If we don’t want to keep Wandering, we have all the tools we need to wake up.
