Essence

The ancients in both East and West conceived of all nature - including the human body - as being constituted of four or five elements or essences: Earth, Water, Air, Fire and (in Eastern philosophy) Sky. Modern atomic theory and chemistry have discounted these alchemical theories; we now understand the molecular constitution of matter in terms of a different set of atomic elements. But there is another sense in which we can understand - and still relate to - the conceptions of the ancients. That is what I address in this book and why I use the term Essence, rather than element. Each of the photographs herein speaks of one or more of these Essences. Sometimes it is straight-forward and obvious; at other times, the imagery is more subtle, abstract and perhaps open to interpretation. But why the nude? It is when we shed all accouterments that we can see the human body in similar terms as the natural landscape, realize the common essence of the human and natural forms, feel their common pulse and the blending or contrast of their textures. In my photographs, I seek the essential unity of the human and natural worlds, to express the simple beauty and joy of their union, to see ourselves as an integral part of the natural world and nature as an equally integral part of our human essence.