“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” –
Susan Sontag
I’ve told you this story before, but many years ago I learned how to integrate photography into my meditation and prayer routine, making the camera an instrument of inspiration, comfort and guide towards the light, in every sense of the word. Over the years I have come to rely on the camera when my world is at its darkest, an emotional crutch of sorts, a conduit of my emotions.
I never understood art history when it was explained to me that the most powerful work of an artist is when they suffer. Just take a look at Vincent Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, John Milton, Ernest Hemingway, and a host of others who had to defy grief, depression, despair and mental health at some point or another in their lives. Yet, their best works emerged from the darkest hours. I understand this perfectly well now, and my camera has proven it to me in the past two days. The emotions embedded in the following images are raw and powerful, with hues of grief, desolation, but also the desire to harness hope onto every source of light possible.
Maike and I went for an evening walk and were blessed with the most glorious myriad of colours along the way. It was far later than the time I would be out and about, given that I never walk these mountain roads alone, but the darkness masks the sadness well. I call this series Tequila Sunset.
When Maike was here last summer, we were so caught up in our travels that we didn’t get around to having a proper photoshoot. This time around I was determined to get my glamour shots and this is the resulting Christmas Rose series. Once I edited the RAW shots I noticed how much she reminded me of a young Cindy Crawford:
It was a joy to work with her again, and I have truly missed our mother-daughter photo sessions. Concentration was a struggle, and looking back at some of the RAW shots I realise I wasn’t really focused when I blocked the shot. The advantage of living in the house that I do is that the entire house can be used as a studio and I have the fields and mountains at my disposal for location shooting. So if I mess up, as I summarily did in the beginning, the next blocking and change in perspective can make up for it.
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