Monday, March 23, 2009

Moving around in body and spirit can often bring you in confrontation with a Black Swan. The idea of "The Black Swan" is not necessarily new. In fact there is a New York Times Bestseller by that name with the subtitle "The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nassim Nichloas Taleb which I highly recommend you read. You will need all your powers of concentration so sit down quietly in your favorite reading spot and come in contact with the unpredictable. I have only read The Prologue and The End - in other words the beginning and the end of uncertainty. It does happen to all of us in our lives - sudden happenings or accidents that no one can predict. It happens in my photography. I own a Holga camera, a $15 dollar plastic camera that holds a roll of 120 black and white film and must be taped securely to prevent light leaks. The lens (if you can call it that) is simply fixed, no aperture settings, no shutter settings. Just as in the original Kodak Brownie, push down on the shutter to take the picture. There is a viewfinder of course but what you see is not always what you will get. I am usually pleasantly surprised. Once the earth curved and the sky above the marsh opened so wide that I thought God, in the form of a lion's head, was pouring a waterfall in full force upon my head. Another time I pointed the lens at the reflections of a boat in the water. What a strange image resulted - so abstract that a painter might have been proud to have thought to paint it. I am chafing to read on, to recapture the awe and wonder that we lose so early on in our social and educated lives and to connect with my images. As I move from one hemisphere in my right brain to the "other side" I wish to open my imagination so that the workings of the improbable are visible. There are lush meadows in the fields of randomness and I intend to explore them. Perhaps soon I will post images on my website. Watch out for waterfalls!

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