A Re-Creative Photo Pilgrimage

Then, this tiny spider web caught my eye like a shiny penny on the floor, all isolated in a field and lonesome.  Now, there are tons of spiders an spiderwebs in taiwan.  More than I care to have around for sure.  But compared to many I have scene this one was little and delicate...and is probably getting ran over by a lawn mower at this very moment.  I hear the humm and drone of the machine now.... good bye little web!

Today it rained.  And rained. And rained some more.  I would say it was fitting weather for the first day back at school after Chinese New Year break, however, I love the rain and it energizes me rather than depressing me; so it is not quite as fitting as many would think. 

I decided to walk in the rain and enjoy myself as I looked for the second picture to add to my collection.  This wall is close to my house and I have found it fascinating since I moved here.  It is highly visual and I find my gaze drawn along its contours the way one admires a handsome man from a distance.  You can't see it in this photo but it has three tiers; each with vibrant flowers running all along its several meter length.  Each tier also has all these beautiful stones placed in neat rows with moss growing around and throughout in a verdant array of colors.   This is one thing about Taiwan that always reminds me of home - the green.  A green so raw and alive that it permeates your soul.  A green so intense you need a new word to adequately describe the emotions evoked by its presence.  A green that calls rain from the sky to join it, promising a richer experience for both. The green that gave birth to a noun who calls us to actively preserve our world's beauty.

My first photo came to me randomly and fit the theme I want to have very clearly. I was standing in my backyard looking out to the mountains trying to regain some peace after some frustrating news. The sight of mountains always calms me. And I start looking around realizing I haven't yet taken my first photo and it is already evening. So I run back in and grab my camera and take stock of my surroundings. The light is nice as the sun begins setting and everything is quite beautiful. Suddenly a blue orb catches the corner of my eye and turns my head. There, in a little forgotten dirt alleyway, hidden half under a fence and some brush, next to the patio, I see a little world. Glimmering blue despite the dirt, it sat tucked away, lost and forgotten. It struck me as such a metaphor for how much of the world is: Lost and forgotten. While Taiwan is certainly not the poorest of countries, its not that glam and glitter that the states can often be. Living here has heightened my awareness of the inequality of the world. Those people who struggle everyday to live, who farm and farm and work and strive and still only barely make it. At home in the states, it seemed sometimes that helping those with less than us was just a chore on the list, a stain to wipe off the counter, as we clean up rather than real people with real needs. This little world reminded me of that attitude , as though the rest of the world was just too small and dirty to be anything more than tossed away - a world lost and forgotten.

A couple of days ago I unwittingly stumbled across a rather inspiring website. www.tasramar.com From what I've encountered so far on the site it is aimed at inspiring people to become the most and best they can be. The author of the site, Tasra, is also a photographer; she uses her photography to share the beauty she sees in people and the world with others. On her site she has issued a 365 day photo challenge. To take one photo per day for one full year. This really caught my attention as I have been wanting to get more into photography again now that I have finished college. I don't have a fantastic camera, more than a point and shoot, but no SLR - just a Canon PowerShot S3 IS. But it is more than enough to help me share how I see the world and help me to re-create the photographer's eye I had almost forgotten I had.

I chose to name this blog "a re-creative photo pilgrimage" because I have recently become enamored of the concept of the pilgrimage. Dictionary.com defines a pilgrimage to be a long journey undertaken as a quest or with a specific votive purpose. I think this fits the goals I have for my photos and for my life. So many people today talk about life as a journey. But a simple journey can be of no great importance. A pilgrimage on the other hand has a clear definition, purpose, and goals often related to the depth and breadth of life and full of personal and often spiritual meaning.

Let me introduce you to my goals in this project.

1. To reconnect with my creative, visual and artistic side. I have spent the last several years studying science. As much as I enjoy what I have learned, I have missed the artistic creative process and the subtleties and intuitive nature of it.
2. To reconnect with my friends far away at home. I am currently living in Taiwan teaching science and math at an international school. I am naturally a very visual person but this makes it difficult sometimes to keep up with friends and family at home who I rarely see. I'm hoping this project will help me reconnect as I share what inspires the photos I take daily - so that people at home can see what's happening in my life and can, hopefully, reciprocate and I can enjoy their lives despite the vast ocean separating us.
3. To communicate visually to everyone the beauty apparent and tragedy ignored of the lives of the people and places around us everyday. Every person needs someone to reach out to them. We all live beautiful lives that are often full of pain, both obvious and hidden. Yet we fear to reach out because we ourselves are in pain. But the beauty found in nature and in the people who we meet daily who have overcome obstacles can inspire us to overcome our own insecurities and reach new heights.
   

To share the burdens and lighten the loads of all is the only true way to find peace in this world.



This is what I want to learn to communicate through my photography. This is the pilgrimage I want to take: To continually re-create, in myself and others, a desire to see beauty in all things and help those around us in this chaos we call life.



Thank you.