Thank you for sharing your reflections on this collection of images. Your words speak to me. It was my hope that this compilation tell a story, a hushed way of wandering across a landscape both untouched and scarred, and I am drawn to your suggestion to add excerpts of the meditations to this virtual exhibit. Thank you for this.
What an inspiration to share a gallery! The first time through, of course we only saw the photos from one step of the journey at a time. It is good to see them together. I imagine for you it is even better, remembering what your body remembers of the crouch, the angle of the arm, the warmth or cold, the position of the sun, the fresh air or smoke. All of that for you is in every photograph. I see what Walt Whitman meant by "I contain multitudes" in your gallery.
You have captured it completely, the phenomenology of the gaze: each image––those places, those moments––now imprinted in the cells of me. I suppose my gaze is now alive, too, in those places and moments. And so, it begs a question about how far we interpermeate and are interpermeated by the world and other . . . and hence, "I contain multitudes," and multitudes contain I.
Yes. I tend to frame/word this reciprocity as “absorbing” and being “absorbed by” the places that spur an especially vivid embodied presence... where I suppose especially vivid means simply that I remember to open to that awareness, which is always there waiting (and as vivid as the vitality we bring to the moment). As you and Walt say, then these places in the body of the continent become part of “me” as I continue through the days and years, while also (having been absorbed by/into each place) bits of “me” remain in the land....creating, over decades, a web of palpable, eternal moments of bodily presence within the landscape, enlivening that larger sense of self/identity.
It was a real treat to share in these profound moments of communion through the quiet space of photos; such a wonderful complement to the richly evocative density of your written reflections.
Your words here are captivating, beginning with 'absorbing' and being 'absorbed by' because they give us over immediately to embodied communing, the fullness of us absorbing/being absorbed. You give us to the fullness of experiencing 'vivid' as itself a vitality--which we bring to what is already there. This mutual absorbing extends and intermingles our horizons of being. This body and that body are never the dense encapsulation thingness we are inclined to believe but ever-expanding fields of being absorbing and being absorbed by vivid, *vital* fields of being. Who is to say "Here is where I am" if here is not everywhere?
I'm so glad to read the images stirred within you quiet communion with the places themselves, some of which are on your near horizon.
I love this meander through your journey Renee and that I see here some of my favourites, but also some brand new treasures and a peek behind the scenes too. I’ll continue to pause here and reminisce with you as I’m sure you do often. Louise x
Thank you for meandering and pausing and reminiiscing. You have traveled many miles here, and every week along the way, you've been here, and I thank you.
Every image an exquisite reminder of your whole being in those far places... I’m more than delighted to have opened the door, to have the fleeting chance to have joined you in those places where surely you left a small part of your soul... These are beautiful and beyond Renée x
Dear Mary,
Thank you so for wandering through this gallery and for sharing. It touches me to know these images touched you.
With love,
Renée
Safar,
Thank you for sharing your reflections on this collection of images. Your words speak to me. It was my hope that this compilation tell a story, a hushed way of wandering across a landscape both untouched and scarred, and I am drawn to your suggestion to add excerpts of the meditations to this virtual exhibit. Thank you for this.
With love,
Renée
What an inspiration to share a gallery! The first time through, of course we only saw the photos from one step of the journey at a time. It is good to see them together. I imagine for you it is even better, remembering what your body remembers of the crouch, the angle of the arm, the warmth or cold, the position of the sun, the fresh air or smoke. All of that for you is in every photograph. I see what Walt Whitman meant by "I contain multitudes" in your gallery.
Tara,
You have captured it completely, the phenomenology of the gaze: each image––those places, those moments––now imprinted in the cells of me. I suppose my gaze is now alive, too, in those places and moments. And so, it begs a question about how far we interpermeate and are interpermeated by the world and other . . . and hence, "I contain multitudes," and multitudes contain I.
With love,
Renée
Yes. I tend to frame/word this reciprocity as “absorbing” and being “absorbed by” the places that spur an especially vivid embodied presence... where I suppose especially vivid means simply that I remember to open to that awareness, which is always there waiting (and as vivid as the vitality we bring to the moment). As you and Walt say, then these places in the body of the continent become part of “me” as I continue through the days and years, while also (having been absorbed by/into each place) bits of “me” remain in the land....creating, over decades, a web of palpable, eternal moments of bodily presence within the landscape, enlivening that larger sense of self/identity.
It was a real treat to share in these profound moments of communion through the quiet space of photos; such a wonderful complement to the richly evocative density of your written reflections.
Jim,
Your words here are captivating, beginning with 'absorbing' and being 'absorbed by' because they give us over immediately to embodied communing, the fullness of us absorbing/being absorbed. You give us to the fullness of experiencing 'vivid' as itself a vitality--which we bring to what is already there. This mutual absorbing extends and intermingles our horizons of being. This body and that body are never the dense encapsulation thingness we are inclined to believe but ever-expanding fields of being absorbing and being absorbed by vivid, *vital* fields of being. Who is to say "Here is where I am" if here is not everywhere?
I'm so glad to read the images stirred within you quiet communion with the places themselves, some of which are on your near horizon.
Thank you, as always, for sharing.
With love,
Renée
There is such an eloquence to this gallery. It is lovely
These images...
Create in me
Stillness
Whispers of the wind.
They draw me in
And pull me out.
They call me to see...
LIght
Shadow
Layers
Newness in the old and
Age in the new
Eyes in the Heavens
Heaven through the eyes.
They bring a
Smile with a deep chuckle of appreciation
A sigh of remembering that
The vastness isn't so vast.
They remind me of
The drought of a soul crying for rain and
The tiniest drops of water which can quench the thirst.
Of the footsteps on the land of our souls
That are only here for a moment.
They are reflections of the seen and unseen in each of us and this earth.
Thank you dear Renee for sharing them with us. My soul has been nourished.
Dear Erma,
Dear friend, thank you. You have rendered me absent word––in the finest manner––by your own. Yours are word that a body knows.
With love,
Renée
Thank you Renee. Your photos called those words to be penned. Blessings to you!
Erma,
Blessings echoed to you . . . and a bow!
I love this meander through your journey Renee and that I see here some of my favourites, but also some brand new treasures and a peek behind the scenes too. I’ll continue to pause here and reminisce with you as I’m sure you do often. Louise x
Dear Louise,
Thank you for meandering and pausing and reminiiscing. You have traveled many miles here, and every week along the way, you've been here, and I thank you.
With love,
Renée
Every image an exquisite reminder of your whole being in those far places... I’m more than delighted to have opened the door, to have the fleeting chance to have joined you in those places where surely you left a small part of your soul... These are beautiful and beyond Renée x
Dear Susie,
Whose images are a daily inspiration for my own camera gaze, thank you. I learn from you.
And yes, surely I linger in the gaze of other places now. Surely, awe must become breath, a substance trees and river and wind and stone feed on.
Thank you for opening the door, Susie.
With love,
Renée
Stunning, takes me so deeply into the imagination
Jennifer,
Thank you for opening the door into the gallery and having a stroll. It touches me that you have shared what these images stir in you.
With love,
Renée
Thank you. Such beauty.💟
Amy,
Thank you. It is good to see you here, and as always, I so appreciate you sharing what stirred you.
With love,
Renée