Photograph by Dennis Cordell. “Photography is the crown jewel of austere poverty. It is what the Japanese poet Hakuin Ekaku has called “the sound of snow.” A photograph can be the answer to a koan that is not information but consciousness. There is an energy that flows between the photographer and the subject. This energy is the source of inspiration and has a classical association to the muse.  This muse, or exuberance is known as prana or “life force” in Sanskrit, rlung in Tibetan, ch’I or qi in Chinese, pneuma in Greek, spiritus in Latin,ruwach in Hebrew, and, perhaps the word “soul” in English. Sometimes it is necessary to be very patient for this vitality to arise. Often an external element such as the light and shadow on the subject is an inappropriate ebullience for the “breath” of the muse to arise, but when the “breath” proceeds, the camera photographs and the photographer and subject fuse to create an amalgamation of beauty.” ~ Dennis Cordell Courtesy of The Awakened Eye. More about Cordell here.

Photograph by Dennis Cordell.

“Photography is the crown jewel of austere poverty. It is what the Japanese poet Hakuin Ekaku has called “the sound of snow.” A photograph can be the answer to a koan that is not information but consciousness. There is an energy that flows between the photographer and the subject. This energy is the source of inspiration and has a classical association to the muse.  This muse, or exuberance is known as prana or “life force” in Sanskrit, rlung in Tibetan, ch’I or qi in Chinese, pneuma in Greek, spiritus in Latin,ruwach in Hebrew, and, perhaps the word “soul” in English. Sometimes it is necessary to be very patient for this vitality to arise. Often an external element such as the light and shadow on the subject is an inappropriate ebullience for the “breath” of the muse to arise, but when the “breath” proceeds, the camera photographs and the photographer and subject fuse to create an amalgamation of beauty.”

~ Dennis Cordell

Courtesy of The Awakened Eye. More about Cordell here.