20 images Created 14 Aug 2018
Soulscapes
The subjects of my photography in Soulscapes are the natural landscapes one may drive past on road trips. In this series these landscapes become the canvas on which I project dream images. Dreams are part of the human experience and often certain dreams leave us unsettled, disjointed, or reflective. We wake up from our dreams, move on to our busy day and continue life; the daily struggles and challenges, managing self-doubts and dealing with life’s big decisions.
I recognized the importance of dreams after noting a recurring dream I had experienced at different parts of my life. As I reflected on the meaning of my dream I began to run into Quranic passages that spoke to dreams. One that stood out was that of the Prophet Yusuf, Joseph, about a particular dream where the sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing to him. In Yusuf ’s dream symbolism convey future events. For Yusuf this was the celestial bodies- the sun was his father, the moon was his mother- and that a certain self awareness or outside wisdom is required to interpret the dream.
From humanity’s beginning the wilderness and human experiences were intimately intertwined, and the unconscious and dreams were integral to how humans understood themselves and their place in creation. But modernity has pushed the wilderness to the periphery by controlling and enclosing it, and discarded dreams as irrational and primitive in its push to discipline the human mind. Yet there are still vestiges to the centrality of dream landscapes in our culture, used heavily as literary and cinematic devices; however, we no longer can make sense of dreams.
Soulscapes is an attempt to create an instructive process for observers to interact with dreams and the wilderness, both a rich reservoir for bringing meaning into our lives. While a single dream image may cause a disconcerting feeling, a collection of images over a time of dreaming can begin to convey symbolic stories that speak to the conscious about what must be done in the person’s life.
While on a road trip in California I would pull over to capture wilderness landscapes for the series. I chose to utilize roadside points to convey how the ordinary, and accessible, incorporates into our unconscious to present symbolic images. For me each image represents, loosely, a stage in the experience of processing a struggle, meeting a challenge, confronting failures, surrendering, and finding a way forward; while the series represents the interpretative process required to make
sense of individual images, what I refer to as the “soulscape.” By placing myself in the image, I provide a vessel for the observer to interpret the emotions, feelings, thoughts, and context. Each image is symbolic and can be interpreted by the observer from the richness of their experiences, cultural knowledge, and understanding, providing access to a persons unconscious, their soul.
I recognized the importance of dreams after noting a recurring dream I had experienced at different parts of my life. As I reflected on the meaning of my dream I began to run into Quranic passages that spoke to dreams. One that stood out was that of the Prophet Yusuf, Joseph, about a particular dream where the sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing to him. In Yusuf ’s dream symbolism convey future events. For Yusuf this was the celestial bodies- the sun was his father, the moon was his mother- and that a certain self awareness or outside wisdom is required to interpret the dream.
From humanity’s beginning the wilderness and human experiences were intimately intertwined, and the unconscious and dreams were integral to how humans understood themselves and their place in creation. But modernity has pushed the wilderness to the periphery by controlling and enclosing it, and discarded dreams as irrational and primitive in its push to discipline the human mind. Yet there are still vestiges to the centrality of dream landscapes in our culture, used heavily as literary and cinematic devices; however, we no longer can make sense of dreams.
Soulscapes is an attempt to create an instructive process for observers to interact with dreams and the wilderness, both a rich reservoir for bringing meaning into our lives. While a single dream image may cause a disconcerting feeling, a collection of images over a time of dreaming can begin to convey symbolic stories that speak to the conscious about what must be done in the person’s life.
While on a road trip in California I would pull over to capture wilderness landscapes for the series. I chose to utilize roadside points to convey how the ordinary, and accessible, incorporates into our unconscious to present symbolic images. For me each image represents, loosely, a stage in the experience of processing a struggle, meeting a challenge, confronting failures, surrendering, and finding a way forward; while the series represents the interpretative process required to make
sense of individual images, what I refer to as the “soulscape.” By placing myself in the image, I provide a vessel for the observer to interpret the emotions, feelings, thoughts, and context. Each image is symbolic and can be interpreted by the observer from the richness of their experiences, cultural knowledge, and understanding, providing access to a persons unconscious, their soul.
