Window into the Soul

With the hope of not creating a blog on philosophy, I will continue to lay out my basic beliefs and apparent orientation relating to photography. An extremely fundamental component of what drew me to want to take “pictures” was my hope of making the transcendent immanent; in other words, taking those passing moments of time and making them permanent.

The photo on the right is one of me captured by a good friend at a time in my life when all the disparate forces were coming together for me and I knew I was on the right path to fulfilling my destiny. Those moments are rare, for sure. But there are abundantly rare moments occurring all the time (an oxymoron?) if only we were perceptive to see them, and even more blessed to catch them as a photographic representation. This is what draws me to take photographs. It is analogous to what Eddie Tapp calls the “pocket of light” when he speaks and explains what seeing the light is all about; in a wider sense, it also is analogous to the so called “golden hour” of light during the day. But it is only analogous, but not the window into the soul as I would see it. Some may say that it is the window, simply because if the window does not have the right light the soul will not be seen. I am always searching for both the window and the pocket, after all this is photography and not philosophy.

Even though the self photo on the right was not taken by me, it was crafted by me to bring out this elusive phenomenon of light and soul. There are two selves because of the interplay of light and darkness both in the science and the art of photography. I, obviously, will have more to say on my success or lack there of in capturing this window.