PHOTOGRAPHY WAS INVENTED

Photography was invented by a painter that saw it as a means of extending painter's aims. He called it the pencil that draws with light. Other painters of the day - like Cezanne - chose to reformulate: "We should not be content to copy from nature's forms, but rather, to learn to create as nature creates... to grow as the tree grows."

One hundred and sixty years has shown us that photography is not so much an invention as it is a discovery. And it's true place is amongst the performing arts, more than the visual. At best, the photograph exists in much the same way as a recording follows the music concert. How clear is the recording?

Photographs are concentrated forms of awareness. Knowing this, we can understand the paranoia that attends having one's picture taken. How many bad photos can one person stand? Here's one under the Christmas tree; another at the passport office; still another overlooking the Grand Canyon. Now we're attending someone's wedding or perhaps trapped inside his or her digital orgy. Hoping to perpetuate ourselves into infinity, we lose track of the obvious. In the hands of an adept, photography becomes a powerful tool for assisting in the transformation of negative energy, both individually and collectively.

The old saying remains new: "The Natives still call it Voodoo!" Of course the notion that Photography robs the Soul is not without merit. What occurs is the creation of a new soul - a parallel soul - one with an entirely updated and powerful influence over the original. So it is with great caution that a sensitive photographer must use the medium at hand, to explore the quality of relationship as it unfolds, and to feed it back to the source as truth.

We discover that, unlike painting - which begins with a blank surface to which the artist adds a design - the fine photograph is arrived at in completely the opposite manner. The photographer, in effect, must remove his/her design from the subject to make it work, it being sufficient merely to sensitize oneself to the existing relationship, or design, as it were. This design is already present in reality, in the subject itself. There is really nothing for one to interpret. The photographer merely enters the relationship at the decisive moment. Metaphysically speaking, he, she or it seeks to enter the ancient consciousness in which life simply is.

And speaking of the Ancients, what else was the Garden of Eden - or Cave, if you prefer - than an Artist's Studio? Truly, in our distant past, each of us was an artist, helping to formulate the newly emerging culture. Contrast this truth with today's unfortunate conclusion - that the artist is merely the oddball in the community (however unique that position is supposed to be amongst the so-called artistic and/or neurotic types). How absurd! The artist is the community, in essence, the basis of any and all communities. Alas, it is society itself that is out of place.

Photography helps us to reclaim our true place in the picture. "In the beginning was the Word," goes one text, "and that Word was God and became flesh and dwelt amongst us." Yes, there is a definite awareness attending creation! Indeed, awareness is the tangible part of all creation. Things don't occur without it. No matter how hard we've tried, no one has yet evolved mindless habit. Photography provides us with a point of access, a very personal and intimate contact with the reality that engulfs us.

With this in mind, please enjoy the exhibit before you. Remember too that my photographs were not taken. I didn't have to take them. They were given to me. They were given to me to share. They are also for sale. Furthermore, if you feel like you're ready to expose yourself, you might consider becoming a Burkhart model. Thank you.