The images in this book represent a humble attempt to capture spirit with my lens.
They are broken down into four "landscapes" of the soul: Water Flow, Entropic Melodies, Spirit & Light, and Micro Worlds. Each offers a unique glimpse into the ineffable mystery we call the world.
Water Flow shows glimpses of dynamic processes at work; though the processes themselves understandably remain hidden; Entropic Melodies hints at the boundary between life and death; Spirit & Light reveals the physical magnificence and splendor of sacred spaces, as created by human hands, though the spiritual object of devotion lies only in the heart of the observer; and Micro Worlds shows the extraordinary resplendent beauty that may be found even in abject banality, but only if the self recognizes that it is its own landscape of the soul.
Spirit & Light has been published in Lenswork Extended Edition #71 (Jul/Aug 2007); Micro Worlds has been published as a featured portfolio in Lenswork (print and CD editions) #76 (May/June 2008).
About the Author
andrew ilachinski
ilachina
Northern Virginia, USA
I am, by training and profession, a physicist, specializing in the modeling of complex adaptive systems (with a Ph.D. in theoretical physics). However, both by temperament and inner muse, I am a photographer, and have been one for far longer than my Ph.D. gives me any right to claim an ownership by physics.
Photography became a life-long pursuit for me the instant my parents gave me a Polaroid instamatic camera for my 10th birthday. I have been studying the mysterious relationship between inner experiences and outer realities ever since.
My creative process is very simple. I take pictures of what calms my soul. There may be other, more poetic words that may be used to define the “pattern” that connects my images, but the simplest meta-pattern is this: I take snapshots of moments in time and space in which a peace washes gently over me, and during which I sense a deep interconnectedness between my soul and the world.
Not Cartier-Bresson’s "Decisive Moment" ..but a "Sudden Stillness."
Dimensions Standard Landscape 170 pgs
Standard Paper
Category Fine Art Photography
Tags black & white, water flow, russian orthodox, contemplative, meditation, spiritual, abstract, symbolic, metaphor, mystery, reflections, poetic, shadows, icons