This site began as a personal project to consolidate those photographs that especially called me to contemplate their depth and variety of meaning. My thought was to take advantage of the increasing presence of the Internet in my life to make these images conveniently available at almost any moment, and in the process to turn my computer and smartphone into resources for meditation. I discovered, too, that the illumination of high-resolution screens allowed me to engage my own art in a new and different light not available through prints. The site was eventually modified and expanded so that I might easily share these images with others.

The group collected under Various Images consists mostly of straightforward but evocative sights of the natural world. However, it does include scenes from "The Gates," which briefly entwined New York's Central Park in an artistic installation. The Flowers group contains a number of simple visuals of natural beauty, but in the macro photographs the perspective of the camera becomes a more salient dynamic, bringing into play qualities of abstraction. The Abstract Macros group largely dissolves distinctions between what is a work of nature and what is the work of the photographer. The richness of these latter compositions comes not only from the intricacy of minerals but from the aesthetic experience of seeing small natural formations recontextualized as if they could be large abstract paintings.

May these images, viewed one at a time -- over time, be invitations to meditation and sources for deepening wonder and aliveness. And, I would encourage you who visit this site to think of what photographs you have taken that could be used in this way on a site of your own.

 

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  © 2012 John Ehman   --   john.ehman@uphs.upenn.edu