Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
Pema Chodron
Monthly Archive for June, 2011
Always when you think that there couldn’t be anything more, the “more” pops up. Seems to be some kind of natural law.
In a matter of instants, the sun light faded and a courtain of water fell from the skies.
That was yesterday. And the whole episode did not take more than a couple of seconds – just long enough for me to run to grab the camera, lean out of the window and take some shots – while getting soaked. Then it was over again. Standing in the kitchen, dripping all over the place, I found that I got a beautiful sequence … and the most astonishing image of the group I am saving up for the book. “A Tender Heart”, yes, in preparation, right on my table at this moment.
They cleaned the pond recently and replaced the lights. So now, in the night, when your eyes are drawn to the only late lightsource in the backyard, you have these two glowing eyes staring back at you. I do not want to complain, but I think they could have done a better job with the light – less haunting. On the other hand side it kinda fits to the character of the place: always empty, always watching. Kinda Stephen King like – only this time it is a backyard with a pond instead of an house.
They put something in the water to make it turn green – or probably they forgot to put in something to keep it clear. But I have to say that I prefer it this way. I always wonder why on earth pools are painted light blue anyway? What most unnatural color to put into a pond like the one in our backyard! I kind of understand why you have this in swimmingpools – the notion of clean and cool. Especially in warmer regions a dark color in a pool would just help increase the water temperature, and with this the growth of everything you do not want to have in that water … but why in a pond? Oh well … it is beyond me.
I guess it is just this way “because it is done this way”, meaning: people do not reflect about alternatives. I fear it is not even about not wanting to take risks – most likely it is about unawareness and being pigeonholed.
Maybe it is just, so that I take some picures … But that would be to take myself to seriously, I fear. :)
Just did this one … An interrupted long exposure into the pitch dark – and I really thought I had heard the shutter – but turns out I had not.
No tripod anyway. Hanging out of the window trying not to breathe, long exposures of this kind become somewhat life threatening.
I am closing the Backyard Series soon. Waiting for the final recipes …
And of course:
Dalwhinnie, Bowmore, Bruchladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Lagavulin, Laphroaig …
Hopefully this winter.
Where there is no light, there is no shadow.
Cliché – but true.
A day earlier at a barbeque party. Same thing, only different.
Always worth it to look up once in a while.
From a bottle of Clos Napoléon, 1986, Fixin 1er Cru.
I have been carrying it around with me since that time – along with several other bottles that probably did not survive either.
May my friends forgive me …
Yes, I have been warned.
This was the first image I submitted to David Alan Harvey for BURNmagazine. He published it in the “single images” section.
It shows a church on a hilltop in Bornheim, where I lived. The wintery night skies and snowy grounds glowing in the lights of Frankfurt’s bank district, that is situated behind the hill. The offices all lit up, people desperately working until late at night. It was the time of the economical crisis in the banking sector. And the crisis reflected all over the place. Quite literally, as one can see.
For those of you, who are participating in (and trying to follow) “A Tender Heart”: my website is being rewamped by vektorrausch right as we speak. It is a parallel process and I will just turn the lights off here once the new site is more or less ready to go. There will be a lot of work for me to do to adapt the content, and so this might take a while. But on the new site it will be easier for you to follow the project, and for me it will be easier to group the information. Win-win.
“A Tender Heart” is made out of several parts. One of the parts, of course, consists out of the recipes that I got from some of you. Another part is the Backyard Series, which you might have followed on this blog. I am still working on this one, and what you see here on the web is not the final edit, I just always quick-grabbed one of the many files for the blog. But I guess it is enought for you to get the idea.
I have not been able to spend the necessary time to prepare the recipes. Still need to fill in some gaps and will write those, who are contributing, emails in the weeks to come. Thanks again for giving me some of your time. I really appreciate it.
Thanks to eBay, I now own a large vintage holder for my glas plates. It is quite a nice object, which you can fold together when it is not needed.
I was originally thinking of building one myself, or of getting a kitchen plate holder for the purpose … But I could not resist this vintage one when it showed up on eBay.
By now I also solved the problem of where to get the chemicals that I will need for the collodion process, as you cannot just go to a store around the corner to simply buy them. It did cause me some headaches at first, but serendipity just did the trick.
The only things missing now is to actually learn the process – the workshop is in July – and to get the right glas plates.
