this morning i discovered an invitation to join a flickr group dedicated to christians. i'm not sure which of my images drew their interest, possibly it was this one, but i can't be sure. after looking over the group forum, i decided to decline the invitation (despite my desperate desire to find someone that wants me and/or my photos). but the forums put me off: one thread was little more than a tiresome flame war between a believer and an atheist over whether the latter can have morals free of god, another thread was posts of pictures of people (mostly women) they consider beautiful(?!). ultimately, i guess, i didn't join because it would have felt something like joining a church where i don't actually share the beliefs of other members.
but, that aside, i do find that i return to christian iconography in my photos more than might be expected of a non-christian (indeed, an atheist). but it's really not much of a surprise: i do live in america after all (surely the most religious, western, non-latin country on the planet); while i didn't grow up religious myself, i was naturally surrounded by african-american culture (in turn, one of the most religious segments of american society); and i've always been interested in religion, mythology, philosophy, theology, etc. and their relationships to expressions of transcendence and art. that's part of the impulse that led to the photo above. it's not that i "believe" in whatever the photo might inspire in a believer (i don't even know for sure what that might be), but it says something to me about archetypes, symbolism and transcendent experiences. i confess that i don't know enough about christian or lunar (pagan?) symbology to read the photo as anything but a (to me) intriguing accident, and, for me, that's enough.
re my previous post about the "PPL OF COLOR" project: i had an email exchange with the project guy. after looking at my flickr stream, he suggested that my photos from the mermaid parade might be appropriate (i can only assume it's because most of the people seem to be of european descent). i told him that there was nothing particular to "whiteness" (again, whatever that is) about them to me. i also said that part of what makes the project interesting is the problem of figuring out how to photograph "whiteness". his reply was essentially to tell me that i was overthinking the whole thing (guilty!) and that he hoped maybe i would go down to OWS and take photos of "white" people involved in the movement. i hope it's needless to say that i found that idea unappealing: ie, point my camera at people who are probably of european descent and label (accuse?) them "white". no, thanks. (after all, i wouldn't be very comfortable with someone pointing a camera a me for the purpose of labelling me "black") i'd be a bit more comfortable if they call themselves "white", but i'm still trying to figure out if i've got the nerve to see who wants to do that.
