About the series

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This series is about being fully present to the world around us, which is much more difficult that we might think. After all, in our modern, hectic world, we’re so often caught up in our thoughts, hurrying around doing five things at once, or captivated by our phones or distractions. Most of us rarely stop and are completely present to our surroundings in the here-and-now, letting go of the usual chatter of our ‘monkey minds’. When we are fully present to our inner and outer worlds, who knows what we will discover?

 

In some ways, the photographs are very simple - I get into a meditative state, and photograph my shadow against the ground. However, it's taken my whole life to be present enough to make these images, and the series explores themes like consciousness and shadow, spirit and matter, the self and identity, and the beauty of imperfection, like how the crack in my driveway is transformed into a lightning bolt of consciousness (as in “Presence #17”).

 

As I photograph the images, I work to bring everything in balance. In addition to often using symmetrical compositions, my shadow and the ground need to be balanced without one dominating the other. The background needs to pulse with energy, like Van Gogh's “Starry Night”. Unlike Andy Goldsworthy, I don't carefully arrange objects on the ground, I instead align myself to my surroundingss, letting my shadow dance with the ground until they merge together, and are transformed.

 

In these infinite moments, sometimes I feel like my body is made of dry leaves, or I am blooming with flowers, or I am the Green Man. My surroundings, in turn, are animated by my shadow, coming to life as the vital organs of the subtle body. I'm fascinated by the thin boundary area at the edge of the shadow, where light and dark mix. Unlike in traditional silhouette portraits, the boundaries of the self are not black and white, as when we feel at one with everything, the boundary between self and other disappears.

 

Even though the shadow is empty of human features, it reveals all the rich detail of the ground that lies beneath it. In some ways, these photographs show more of our underlying nature than a million selfies would. After all, we're all made of the same basic elements as everything around us, we're all made of dust and leaves and light. And like in “Presence 13”, our thoughts are like gently-tangled knots, which can be unwoven and let pass when we need to return fully to the here and now. 

 

All photographs are archival pigment prints, on the highly-textured Hahnemuehle William Turner paper, and are available at 20” x 20”, 40” x 40”, and 58” x 58”.