Music of Photography - Volume I

Music of Photography Volume I

Patrick

Patrick MatiĹ&#x; Matis

In the beginning there was.. Music Ah, Music! Can’t live without it! Everywhere we go we listen to music, whether in the car, at the mall, at the museum, or in the elevator, there is sound everywhere. It keeps our ears trained. Music is a part of our lives and a very important one.

Chapter I : In the beginning there was.. Music ------------- 1

In this monograph I want to talk about music, to reflect upon it, to understand it, but also I would like to do

Chapter II : Piano Stair Stepping ---------------------------------- 3

this in a visual manner so I choose photography as a medium. This is a unique way of understanding music, really,

Chapter III : Ode to Vision -------------------------------------------- 7

voice of their makers.

Chapter IV : Highlighting the Mysterious --------------------- 11 Chapter V : Sustainability of Life --------------------------------- 15 Chapter VI : Use it or lose it ---------------------------------------- 18

because I saw that there are photographs that really sing or speak, having their own voice which is, of course, the

Music and photography are two of the most popular art forms today that really influence us emotionally and intellectually. Whether we are listening to a tune at home, in the subway station or in the train going to work, or in our car driving back home, or whether we are travelling and taking photos, these two artistic instruments are accompanying us day in and day out.

But this is really not about photographying musical instruments for example (although I may create some

Chapter VII : A time to speak or sing --------------------------- 23

photographs of some musical instruments that I like, some day), it is about plain music and photography. These

Chapter VIII : Variations on a Theme -------------------------- 28

and second of all there is music in a good photograph that you are seeing, one that you’d like to put on your wall

two media have something in common: first of all, they both make our hearts sing, or make us sing our heart out, or would take it with you to look at it and contemplate it from time to time.

A few months ago I was thinking about music measurements, dynamics, tempo, rhythms, harmony and articulations etc., something I am particularly drawn to, in music. There is a sense of mystery and mathematics, for that matter, that I find it really interesting. I also compare it with a very good, excelent photographic composition.

With these elements in mind, I combine both photography and music.

Piano Stair Stepping

Anyway, have you ever thought that a photograph could be a symphony? Or a minuet, a ballad, an overture, or even a choral chant? And I don’t mean photographing the very thing performed by people. But I mean it could represent it even metaphorically, but one has to reveal it in one’s photographs.

That is the goal of the project, to reveal music, its elements and maybe its essence in photography, or to photograph a story sung using music’s compositional elements in photography (and that is not all, I will embark on a journey of discovering music and photography).

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Confucius

Italians, back in the romantic period, used to sing to each other. Their daily life was a musical, I think, and no wonder they were very good musicians and very opened emotionally.

Have you ever seen a photograph that sings to you, literally? And I don’t mean the one that hits you like a ton of bricks and suddenly you hear choirs of angels singing to you, I mean a photograph that has a voice, a tune,

So, everywhere I go there is a musical to be made, there is a musical element to be discovered, revealed and contemplated as it is, there is a musical moment that really sings to the viewer, and that will be revealed in

if you will, a music of its own. I said literally but I actually meant metaphorically. I have found that there is a music of photography.

photographs I will make for this reason, for this project.

There are many things to say about music and, of course, I am not going to make this chapter some kind of an encyclopaedia of music, nor one of photography, but I’m going to say my mind because this is what really matters in this case.

There is something about a certain photograph that one takes, or makes, speaking in the terms of the world of photography, that speaks out so loudly that one cannot hear it with normal ears, but with different kind of ears that are atuned to its different kind of language, to its different kind of frequency.

People say that “an image is worth more than a thousand words” and I think I can agree to some extent, but some people trancended the mere words we utter everyday. Of course, in this particular saying I cannot consider the pure literal way of it but take in consideration that it is a metaphor. It doesn’t really mean words, literally, but figuratively speaking.

I have found out that there is a strong connection between visual communication, regardless of the means, in this case photography or even the signs’ language etc., spoken communication and music, a connection so

I know, it’s a very complex task, but isn’t life very complex as well? I’d say. But it’s also simple and I don’t want to think ahead. I just want to let myself guided by it. Remember: one step at the time.

strong and intimate that all these means are purely aspects of the same thing: language. And what is language, actually? A way of communication, some may say. Means of expression, others may opine. But I want to say my mind again and I think that language is music and music is essentially vibration. It all comes down to vibration.

There was a very interesting little documentary on the web “the other day” that says that “everything is a remix”. Have you seen it? If not, it is very interesting, I recommend it. You should see it! In it, the idea that there is nothing original to create is explained with rather pertinent evidence, due to the fact that everything is a remix, it

Everything vibrates, my friends, from the very small rock on a mountain cliff, to the very old piano sitting

has been made before. There’s nothing new under the Sun. And I want to somehow link this idea to the one that

in a person’s livingroom.. from the very food we eat to the very Human Soul etc. Everything that vibrates has life,

I wrote above where I said that I want to let myself guided by it. I think that music makes itself up also and we do

it moves. Everybody noticed this and may agree, of course. Even colours vibrate.

not really create it but rather we are actors in its dramatic play. We play it. We don’t quite create it. I want to explore this idea even further because it’s been on my mind for years now.

I remember what Bob Marley used to say that “one good thing about music is that when it hits you, you feel no pain”. Not like the ton of bricks I mentioned to you about in the beginning of this chapter. It is a certain quality of music that opens up doors, portals and possibilities to the continuum of time and space within us and for us. With the power of music we create and the power of music is creative.

But things have to take it slowly, isn’t it? Things have to progress and not in the manner we want, with the speed we want, but of course much slower than our enthusiasm stimulates us to do it. It’s like the labyrinth from the gothic cathedrals, if you’ve noticed it, where you have to undergo every test, go through every compartment to reach its center, its essence, its core. You go from one octave to another in a progressive manner, not jumping to other octaves but advancing within each and everyone of them. This is the beauty of it. Its complexity is also its simplicity because you take one step at the time. There are no big nor small steps, just one step at the time.

I’ve started this project in photography with one goal in mind, as if I wanna reach a destination: to bring music to light, the music of photography. Actually, this so-called destination is not really a destination as we would imagine it, due to what we’ve been told to think, but rather a goal that has one characteristic: freedom. I don’t know what I would find and where would I stop. I just know I will finish the project when my task is done about this subject matter. How would I know it? I can’t explain in words, but in images.

If this is true, then where is the originality, creativity and uniqueness of each and everyone of us? I caught a glimpse of it and now I want to reflect upon it, see it, that is, envision it, and contemplate it.

Ode to Vision

“The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print is the performance.”

Ansel Adams

There is an ongoing war in the world of photography between the followers of “artistic photography” and the followers of “realistic representative photography”, so to speak, each one against one another, acting and counteracting ideologically against each other and none of them are winning it. In fact, the struggle in their own minds is even greater because the more they “fight”, the more they sustain their conflicts. This also destroys their vision in what they do.

Each and everyone of them feels the need to be right and feels betrayed that they are not listened to.

The debate goes ever on about what should be photography and what shouldn’t. One day I read in a book written by a great spiritual master saying that nowadays painting is nothing more than photography and that is not original, for it imitates what is been seen in the world. Also, he said that true painting is the one made by the chinese and japanese even from the ancient times (such as the zen or chan paintings). If one studies these paintings can see that the artists’ vision of the world is quite unique and original and the forms in which they paint their landscapes, for example, come from their understanding of the true essences of what they paint and how they paint it. It comes from hundreds of years of contemplating the archetypes and their originality comes from daring to cross the boundaries of art itself into the abstract, I may add.

Piano stair stepping

To be original is not something ordinary nor far fetched. It can be reached by anyone who dares. The true courage is when the intention is made and cristalized into action in this world. But originality or uniqueness is not

a trademark of art. It can be found in science, philosophy, religion, medicine, and in any day-to-day crafts as well.

There isn’t a sense of place here as we know it, it is only conceptual. It speaks something, it sings something. But what? Do you see?

Almost the same thing happens in the world of photography today. Many passionate photographers are starting to cross the line between the industry of photography and the quite unexplored original photography

It sings in my mind in a largo tempo and reminds me of the simplicity of thought. But how does it sing it?

that has much to offer. Of course, that realm is not for the faint hearted, so to say, being only for the ones who love to get out of their comfort zones, for the adventurers of art who are truly pushing their own limits of creativity given by their conscious levels of their own Soul.

Often in music, as well as in photography, things, ideas, notions, what we communicate is very simple.

Notes are simple as the drops of water composing the sea, the ocean. The gathering of notes, the musical syllables are simple too. But how can one show this simplicity better? I think it could be done by using long notes, long

On the other side are the ones who like to impose rules and regulations because they don’t feel comfort-

tempos. In photography we use long exposures to stretch time or the tempo of an image.

able not being in control of their art or their craft, even if it is non-artistical. They are affraid of the power of their emotions and the more they fight against them and try to “hide the Sun behind the finger” the more powerful and

I want to say this last word to those haters out there that despise the whatsoever processing of images af-

uncontrollable their emotions are. Trancending their emotions is not on their list or, if it is, they don’t know how

ter the shooting. Remember that back in the early days of photography, photographs were made using only long

to do it or they are afraid to even try, even if they know how.

exposures! Does this alter the reality you’re so much attached to or not?

They say what’s real and what is not. They are mostly against post-processing and want to do everything right in camera, like there really is a right and wrong in photography. This is the old paradigm that wants to wage war against its own other side. So, it is a war between both sides of the same thing. Curiously enough, they have no idea that they complete each other. The same thing happens in our world with every other aspects of practical life when we are trying to put borders on them and control them.

Recently, I traveled to the sea, our Black Sea. Late March, very cloudy and moody too. The atmosphere, there, was interesting and I was thinking about doing some monochrome photography. I found my spot, setup my tripod, put the camera on it and tried to compose some frames. I was also thinking about long exposure because the sky was full of clouds and it was very dramatic as well.

In my vision the wide horizon met the open sea and tone, contrast and perspective were made by the very deepening the highlights gave, depicting a large, in the distance, view offshore.

This is the first study.

Highlighting the Mysterious

“When words fail, music speaks.”

Hans Christian Andersen

When I started the “Music of Photography” Project I didn’t know what to expect, but I felt the need to make this and I had one goal in mind and one yearning: I knew that there is music in photography. My eyes, my hands and my camera were drawn to it although I didn’t know what I could find.

Over the past ten years I learned to never separate art from science, religion and philosophy, that is, the basic components of universal knowledge, when I talk about issues as such. They are never separated in reality, they come together in a full package if you will. And, thus, I can’t tear them apart. My heart wouldn’t let me.

I also have an afinity for Mother Nature, for the natural world and for everything she creates. I contemplate Creation in all its glory and splendour and when I do this, to me time isn’t neither near nor far, neither early nor late, it just isn’t anymore. It’s all a present continuous tense, if you know what I mean.

I do feel like timeless, as a speck of immortality and everlastingness, immersed in the act of watching the spectacle of Nature unfold before my very eyes. Wherever I may be, in a forest, on a mountain cliff, on the shores of a lake or on the hills, the feeling or reverance is there all the time with me.

Contemplation brings certain kind of superior feelings that cannot be described in words and I thought Largo - Study I

about singing them. But not yet. First of all, I want to photograph them and showcase what I saw and felt beyond the measurements of imposed technicalities of the cold, intellectual realm of human thinking. The latter are no

use for me when I want to express this. Only my intuition is.

And this activated once again, as it did in the past, not so long ago, also the power of imagination in me.

Not only that but I started to listen to what Nature had to say, the signs, the symbols, the messages sounded loud-

I think music is a universal language that speaks to every human being and activates the same virtues of

ly and clearly in my ears and in my mind.

the Soul no matter who the person in question is listening to it. It’s a special case with Nature, though.

The mountains, though, in particular, have a certain kind of aura and mystery when in times of atmospherThe qualities of light, the dominion of the Sun over the Earth for so many millions of years, is what brings

ic eccentricities. They perform a show like no other, their own show in the most natural, unique and original way

the symphony to life, or the symphony of life. One moment and the tune starts in our mind. Relatively thinking,

possible. The astound the viewer. The might, the majesty of the mountains in their own atmospheric spectacle is a

though, for there is no starting nor stopping. It’s just us preferring one musical piece from the larger song of the

special song, a symphony if you will of the Magnus Opus of Mother Nature. It sings of uniqueness, valiance, sense

Universe to another. Therefore there is only one song of the Universe.. Uni-verse, one verse.

of adventure and patience for enduring the millions of years of rock carvings.

Another thing I have noticed is that Nature does not reveal her secrets to just anyone, but to some that are willing to receive them, to those who are also putting themselves in the state of cooperating with her and receiving without ever adding their commentary to the message. For those who are willing to listen. All the rest is hidden, veiled from the masses as they remain only elements in fulfilling her universal economical plan. Food must be distributed to those who are hungry, just as beauty must be shared to those who yearn it.

Right now I remember a very excruciating fact about the nature documentaries of the very popular documentary television channels of our world, which I respected very much until I found this one out, that they intellectually manipulate the facts about the natural world by adding their own subjective, and, above all, erroneous opinions over the natural subjects that they particularly describe in order to change the public’s opinion into believing their own. Have you noticed if you go out into the wild, in nature, that what you were told by the documentary channels is not quite true, if not at all actually? I did and I was very shocked to realise that what I knew about wildlife is mostly wrong and the natural world escapes every of my tries to interpret it to the point of making me not understand it at all. Then, I had to make a crucial decision to stop interpreting it and something else moved me and moved within me: the superior part of my emotional center of gravity of my feelings (from the very simple emotions to the most complex feelings). At this point I started to think and feel differently and, naturally, I read the landscape, I read Nature as I should have from the very beginning. The smoke of yesteryear’s prejudices faded away and I could see clearly… and understand, as my intuition came alive.

Those who are so trapped in the everyday tumult of “what’s going on!?” and scores and calculations, and stay in the big city will never see such a performance. Their eyes and ears are shut.

Sustainability of Life

“There’s more to Life than increasing its speed.”

Mahatma Gandhi

I was once talking about Nature’s sustainability and, in this case, of course, about Mother Earth’s capacity to sustain herself and us, and one thing I emphasized in particular was the ability of regeneration. I think, also, that this is true in our case, the human beings that inhabit this planet.

Right now I’m also thinking about our tendency to destruction that we have planted in our minds, like a disease (let it be read like this: dis – ease, as in restlessness) that does not give us peace. We are constantly thinking restless on how to conclude our accounts with this world, a limited and ill kind of thinking that does nothing else but to unbalance the scale of the Universe.. and then what? Where would we go? What would we do?

Sustainability is not survival, for this latter means cooperation with the law of entropy. Emil Racovita, the great Romanian speleologist said once “if a specie adapts itself to the environment it has every chance to disappear from the history of the natural world”, which remained one of the greatest laws of genetics today. It is not about survival of the fittest, which is of course relatively true, but in reality there is no such thing in a recreational Universe which was created out of love and joy, and once we attune to it we feel these great values nurturing our Souls once again, but it is about excelency which is something not far fetched and not far away for mankind. Each and everyone of us have potentialities for geniality. It is only a question of whether we would harness it or not and it is our responsability to do so, especially in these times we live today.

In rilievo Misterioso

In the previous chapter I wrote about what kind of ideas the television documentaries of our world spread throughout their shows and I emphasized the fact that they give their subjective and erroneous opinions as universal truths. They also seem to know more than the animals they film, do. They make us think that what they say is the case and they emphasize the idea of survival mostly in harsh, hostile environments and conditions. Apparently it maybe the case but the hidden message is very obvious to the one who reflects upon it: “survival in a world that it is not sustainable”. And then the obvious question comes to mind: when and how did us, humans, appear on this planet? What is our origin truly? They know nothing about it as they state this even today, in the 21st century. How ridiculous!

And this lead to the crysis that we all feel today: what do we do from now on, when all else failed us?

Institutions failed us. Economies failed us. Governments failed us and they are hanging by a thread. Unique and revolutionary ideas are sprouting here, there and everywhere in our minds and we harness them, we make them flourish, we put them to work and so on. Churches failed us also and have started to do so for more than one thousand years. All of their decrepit ideas are dying and then what? As we all see today, that which we call the new came to us and will hold dominion over the world for a long time. This is the revolutionary era of cosmic, timeless ideas.

And then, sustainability will be a fact. Regeneration is and will be a fact. By becoming aware of these two facts we can live truly.

What we call destruction, Mother Nature calls recomposition. We head towards an imagined dire end with a thousand miles per hour and I’d like to say that we like to kill ourselves because we think that there’s nothing else we could do. We do not see all ends, as purposes. This is existentialism in its criminal and self-destructive aspect. Now we know!

When I go out in Nature I see everywhere the power of creation that is timeless, eternal and ever going.

It does not stop nor it starts. It is just creating and creating again and again, as a continuum of time and space, of the cosmos. This is what I observe on our planet, a world which can sustain itself and us.

Sostenuto

Use it or lose it

“When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.”

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

it is the projector itself. Often I find myself divided between the projector and the projected and I see that I am both. In conclusion, I project myself. But who or what am I beside these?

The obvious and the no-intermediary answer is the conscience. But what quality do I have? Everyone must have a role to play in one’s life. But am I aware of it? Does Nature help making me aware?

Very often, when I’m out in nature I find myself talking to myself too much and I have to shut myself up. I see a lot of fear in my thoughts and many of them unnecessary. Mostly, they do not happen the way I vision them.

It’s like I want to get myself in trouble, or lost in the woods, or something like it, just to feel that I was right. Even

I was watching an interview on education, the other day, in which the interviewed was talking about certain mechanisms within ourselves, in our physical anatomy that function on the “use it or lose it” principle and I

in fear I want to feel that I am right and even in fear I want to feel powerful in my own weakness and with my own weakness. I know, very paradoxical! But that is what I see in me.

firstly thought about the muscular system that our physical body has. I remember, during my bodybuilding training sessions, that if you don’t train your muscles the way you used to, they atrophy and one could assume, they die or they dissapear. But actually that is not the case and we’ll see that in the following.

So, conscience makes the world go round, not money, nor fame, nor the possesion of someone in our lives, nor even our house, or our car, or our diplomas and credentials etc. Conscience can balance you, conscience can heal you, conscience can get you back on your tracks etc. In conscience there is memory. In conscience there

Nature has a way of telling us that we do not dissapear, we do not diminish or die, or become extinct or

is the ability to return to the initial state in which we found ourselves one day.

something like this. Even death is just a comma in eternity. It is in our nature to go on, to endure even the hardest of conditions, according to our vision. But is it our vision, truly? I believe not, for what we project is the conditions

When I talk about music of photography, I must take in consideration choreography also. I think that this

of yesteryear’s memes borrowed from others who did the same. It’s like there’s a virus among us telling us what

is another way of expressing music. There is no musician that is not a coreographer also. If you are a guitarist, your

to do. But a virus has no head, nor a tail, has no heart, nor a brain, it only has a text wrapped within a proteinic

fingers dance on the chords. If you are a choir singer, your lips, your vocal chords dance too.

“envelope”. And the text says something of no specific author, or the author was lost long ago. An anonymous if you will.

I also think that a symphony, for example, does not have a destination. Can anyone who heard the Nineth Symphony for the first time tell how it would end? There is a knowing of uncertainty but not one of doubt. There’s

Ok, so what makes muscles, bones, blood, organs, skin tissues and such do their thing “while we are

only the enjoying of contemplating it.

asleep”? Have you ever asked yourself this kind of question? I know I did, I mean just now. And I realised there must be something that holds everything in place and doing their own work for us. Everything functions the way

A flower can dance too, I assure you. I saw it with my own eyes. It’s a slow dancer, yes, but a dancer by all

it is meant to. It is not memory, which is a recording mechanism, a tool of the projector and its will and so on, but

means. The very constitution of a plant is musical, geometrical, it’s a dance written in molecules, cells, atoms etc.

Some even say that atoms dance too.

So, let us dance but nor forcefully! Naturally, yes.

Music experts say that there is a kind of routine in music also and that is the rhythm. I say that that is not routine but the expression of humbleness in simple and diligent formations of notes. Routine is obeying the law

Oh, I almost forgot. Conscience can transform you into something different. Remember the butterflies?

of entropy. Rhythm is governing the said law and playing with it. The one who plays with it, makes it.

What are they and what do they look like when they are young? They’re larvae and then they wrap themselves in a cocoon and ultimately they become butterflies. But how beautiful are they? I think that that is the ultimate expression of their conscious will, right then and there.

Going back to the principle of “use it or lose it” I remember Isaac Newton’s famous quote: “Nothing dissapears, everything transforms itself.” This saying of his changed or could have changed the entire world forever.

Why? Because it shows an universal truth in the vision and intuition of this late scientist. Nothing becomes ex-

But in the human reign what do we have, what proof do we have? Well, remember the conductor of an orchestra or a choir? That conductor is a dancer. That is a dance he is performing. So, I think that we are the conduc-

tinct, but everything becomes something or someone else different, but the essence remains the same at its core.

Is it?

tors of our own lives in a conscious or unconscious way due to our free will. But there is another conductor that puts the score on our table which we will play, willingly or unwillingly. That is the one we like to call God, Allah, Brahma, Elohim, Dieu, Dios, Zeus, Tao or however. Religious and non-religious people are involved in this also. But why is He a conductor, or a dancer? Because He likes to contemplate His own work.

But who is the writer of that score or the other? Well, God, of course. In the Universe, in our world, in Nature there are lessons, of course, teaching us what we don’t want to be, that is ourselves.

Think about it! Are you shy? Do you dance at a party? Are you freely and uninhibited, in a decent way, of course? Then, that is the quality of you? That determines how you dance both on the floor and in your life. It applies for all of us.

In photography there is no room for hiding, just like in any other artistic expression. Imitation is a form of hiding and also pretending to be an artist, a master of your domain, if you will. Then, the taste of freedom makes all of us become true artists because it is more intoxicating than all vices, or drugs that make us sweet dreamers.

It is also the most scary because we were thought to never leave our confort zones and our confort zones give us pleasure and a quiet confidence, but not happiness. It is a kind of stifled joy that is called the routine.

With the power of transformation we can even transform our own physical body and its genetic material.

I don’t think there is anything implacable, but it makes it implacable if we choose it to be.

A Time to speak or sing

“Music expresses what cannot be said which is impossible to remain silent.”

Victor Hugo

Music, as I said, is always with us. There isn’t a day without listening to music in our lives. It is a part of who we are, actually.

In the photography world there is the industry of photography that makes everything going on in it be mass produced. There is no room for creativity. It’s just pure production on a “conveyor belt”.

In this industrial photography world the photographer is just a robot, a machine that produces photos for the sake of the photos. Commercial photography is one aspect of it. Then there is also the judicial aspect in which the laws and regulations imposed upon the medium are limiting and fringing the photographers to just mass producing photographs without questioning why, without being and thinking, if possible, outside the box and also tells photographers what rights they have. It is another world than the normal world in which we were born. It is a termite-like society, so to speak.

The photographer is no longer the artist and even the photographic art has no profound content, is just art for art’s sake, only something tingling the emotional center of gravity for the feelings and not stirring any questions that sound like “what if?” or “why this?” and “why that?” etc. It is made only for the mere emotional pleasure. But unfortunately, we ignore that emotions come from a creator and they are the sign of consciousness.

The industrialization of photography and art in general made them all be trivial. The real meaning of Dance

photography and art was forgotten. But now it is time to be reminded again. Many photographic artists feel this.

dilatation and there is contraction. There is departure and there is return. Everything happens as such in Creation.

Humans are not mechanical constructs, are real conscious beings. More and more people around the

But the pseudo-scientists of today have a way of interpreting things that is, many times, completely ab-

world have started to realise this.

surd. Their logic is crippled and they ignore many aspects of the world. Their way of thinking is completely reactionary, unfortunately, and it reveals the fact that they don’t think for themselves at all, but rather they repeat the

We were and still are, unfortunately, in the winter of our civilization. What was civilized back in the days of yore, or back in the golden age, is now almost gone. The majority of people have taken the downward spirral road

memes, which I mentioned in the previous chapter of the project, that many others before them spread from their minds, being infested with the same viruses.

to involution and mass extinction. The fanaticisms of the world have almost entirely consumed them to the point of no return. One of the deadliest ideological fanaticism was and still is existentialism which meant to transform

When someone who wants to investigate honestly the arcanes of science and asks them for their opin-

mankind into a one sided, narrow minded and limited cluster of biological machineries being dissapointed with

ion can verify what I said above and the fact that they have no evidence for their statements. “We do not know

the outcomes of their past, of history. Too bad, one may say! Too radical and harsh, another may say! I say it is the

yet?” – they say, yet they never knew nor they will ever. It is only a hypothesis, a presupposition. They even say

bare truth when we look at it. It is not my personal subjective opinion but rather something that anyone can ver-

that matter has no conscience. But aren’t our physical bodies material? Then, who inhabits our bodies if not us?

ify.

And what are we?..

Where are we going with this, actually? Have you all asked yourselves this? To oblivion, to total destruc-

tion, where to? Dissapointed we are, but on ourselves actually. And then there is the ill will…

So, evolution exists in Nature and so does involution, its twin sister but opposite. Also there is another kind of growing that I want to emphasize right now and that is the growing of our inner garden. Evolution and involution as well showed us some things that we need to remember. Our journeys were of progress and regress.

The idea of musical progression lingered in my mind for some time now and I want to reflect upon it.

But what is the instrument for the growing and diminishing? I think it is the Conscience, the witness and the pro-

There is a musical notion in tempo called “crescendo”. The tempo, which can include the rhythm also, increases

tagonist of the journey. And then there is free will coming from the knowing and being self-aware. Then this other

its speed and even complexity, likewise its frequence or its overall pitch. Extrapolating this in Nature we find this

journey starts.

to be the law of evolution. It is a law, because it’s accomplishing itself day by day, moment to moment etc., and it means to grow, to progress and even complicate the energies that reside and flow in Nature. You must remember that everything is energy, even matter is.

Unfortunately, the pseudo-scientists of today with their evolutionist theories say that there is only evolution. But in music there is no such thing. Evolution has its counterpart. Crescendo has its counterpart called “diminuendo” or “decrescendo”, followed sometimes by “al niente”, or fading to nothing, to silence. The tempo decreases its speed to a point where it becomes very slow or to a point of utter silence. There is expansion or

We can never forget who we truly are, even if one day we may “lose” everything we accomplished. There is this certain knowing of our capabilities and potentialities. Nothing is lost only reduced to silence.

In the world of art, not only in photography, it happens that many of us have gone on an unnatural journey of harvesting quantities instead of qualities. But quantities of what?

Quantities are not about measure but about control. We seek control of ourselves and of others expanding our own ego in the process. Quantities are also not about accumulating goods but about power. So we are unconsciously looking for power and control over what? Over what cannot be quantified, measured or labeled, held in place. It is not about money, nor about fame, but about proving ourselves that we can do it in the world, in life.

Money and fame are just means to an end.

But why prove it to ourselves? Who told us that we are weak or powerless, that we cannot do anything or that we can do very little? Who put these memes, these psychological songs into our minds? The problem is that we helped cultivate this worldwide among ourselves because we cultivated them in our own inner garden and now they are fully grown.

Qualities are about letting go. No attachments and no desire brings fulfillment with qualities of joy. Look at children, for example! They are freeminded and carefree, but not careless, like the false education’s results in our adulthood. They are pure and natural in expressing their ideas and feelings and also creative, but above all else, revolutionary.

The other kind of growth I want to talk about is revolution. This word, this notion was missinterpreted and missunderstood, or better yet, not understood at all, throughout history by most of us. We thought it meant violence, competition, war, sacrifices through bloodshed and this for what? We said “for peace”. But actually we meant “for our own peace of mind”, or for controlling our mind. And that lead to putting our minds in shackles and sending them to jail, confined within a cage of four walls and prinson bars. That is not control! That is another kind of reduction to silence. That is a crime.

Our song does not end here even if we kill it willingly. It continues to play.

Let it grow, develop and then let it diminish by itself, after your work is done!

Crescendo

Variations on a Theme

“In string theory, all particles are vibrations on a tiny rubber band; physics is the harmonies on the string; chemistry is the melodies we play on vibrating strings; the universe is a symphony of strings, and the ‘Mind of

God’ is cosmic music resonating in 11-dimensional hyperspace.”

Michio Kaku

its true nature and unbalancing the scale of the universal harmony. This happens through blocking energies, resources, information in a certain area, in a certain part of the organism, both small and big, so to speak, a part which is actually a melody or a song of the Universe, or through abusing their consumption and fastening their processing speed. If this is too scientific or abstract for you, let me know! I will try to explain what I mean with a few examples.

I appeal now to photography to show my examples visually. I think you all know that everything changes in the world, nothing stays the same. In landscape photography, as well as in any other kind of photography, the photographer never exhausts the subject matter and the ways to photograph because of this I said above, that

In my previous chapters I followed the trails of true knowledge and false knowledge (if we can even call it knowledge), the latter bringing nothing but confusion, bits and incomplete pieces of truth and lies, most of them. But I thought about a way of continuing to talk about this and how I can raise some questions, some stimuli to continue searching furthermore the arcanes of what lies hidden right in front of our eyes. Again, I turned my attention to music and photography, to the music of photography but expecting nothing, really. I don’t know what to say. I only know what I want to show you.

The true seeker is the one that has imagination above all else. Without this, all experiences count for nothing.

In music there is the notion of variations on a theme by someone, a composer, or of a certain musical work and I’ve thought about this a long while. I wanted to understand it.

In music theory, of course, its definition tells us that it is a musical form repeated in an altered way. Repetition and alteration, in my opinion, tend to be opposite. When you alter something you change it, you deviate its nature entirely or partially, depending on how much you’ve altered. I cannot agree entirely with the musical dictionary definition and I must say that alterations can occur in Nature, actually, all the time. But the artificial alteration we provoke to ourselves and to others, or to Mother Nature, to the planet itself, is a form of inversing

nothing stays the same even for a split second. There are frames which one can shoot all the time. There are many qualities of light bathing the scenery and one can assume that there’s always something to photograph. The possibilities are endless. One just needs time to practice and persevere.

Take a sunrise, or a sunset, for example. The light changes all the time. So, taking multiple shots is the key.

One can make many compositions that work, just like Ansel Adams used to say “knowing where to stand”.

A variation of compositions brings out something essential: different ways of seeing. And then there is the freedom of seeing, experimenting and creating. But it starts with the vision one has before making the shots.

You have the image in your head and then you cristalize it, you make it in the frame you shoot, you post-process, you polish, you finalize it and then you print it and hang it on a wall.

So, there are variations on a theme even in visual arts, such as photography, and some call them studies, others call them modes etc. It doesn’t matter how one calls them. In photographic projects a photographer can use this method of creating different images of the same subject matter, of the same subject scene, so to speak.

It can be considered an alteration of the initial plan but not quite. It can mean the same thing only spoken with other words.

There is this expression called “in other words”, since photography is a language, a way of communication. There is nothing wrong, nor right in this, because there are no such things, really. It’s just that we can use visual synonyms through this medium and showcase possibilities. I will detail it in a moment after this: We can extrapolate it and give other examples. There are many languages in the world, of course, and all of them have many things in common and many other things that differentiate them. If someone would study them in depth one would even discover that they all come from the same source language, or mother language, so to speak. There are different ways of seeing, believing and speaking, not to mention singing. The causes for this could be found in the alienation between people all over the world at all levels of living, with both positive results and negative results. I won’t get into further details, because it doesn’t belong here.

But the cause doesn’t always have to be negative in its nature. There are positive causes for a different way of speaking. Of course, in this case the effects must be positive also. At its origin is the human yearning to improve oneself, at least.

I know we all have music to play in our lives. We all have something to say and this thing is very interesting because we can develop ourselves and work with our inner, core values as human beings, the values of our Soul, even if this sounds somewhat evangelistic. It doesn’t have to be interpreted as a bad thing.

Ever since childhood I knew I had something to say and to make a difference in this world. I knew I had somethings I needed to do and I came back to them, after being away from them quite a long time, and now I want to speak my mind and my heart, as I said previously. Now I want to do my thing.

Communication is very important and is one of the keys to all human success. All the conflicts in the world turned to war, poverty, missery, despair, illnesses and death are due to us refusing to communicate with each other, blocking all negociations, all discussion because of fear and ill will, so to speak, that drove us to doing madnesses. The worst case is when parents refuse to communicate, in one way or another, with their children, for this is the beginning of all problems in the world. We witness every day the alienation of children all over the world.

They are not given attention, love and the affection they need and they are going astray because of this. We ignore the values of their childhood and the powers that they have, the potentialities. Not all parents do this, but I think most of them are doing it.

Let us not reduce them to silence or not give them a chance to prove themselves even if they are still children! Let’s not forget that the genius of childhood is the one sustaining the matters of the world.

Every child is different from the other and they all have their roles to play. Of course, every man and woman is different. But children are in their development as human beings and their growth must be healthy, strong and beautiful in every sense.

Unfortunately, not giving them the attention they need is like sowing seeds in your garden and not watering them, or watering them very little. You will not grow any crops and, not to mention, you won’t have anything to be proud of. Above all, this backfires at us and suddenly we see that we reap what we have sown. Treating our children eventually becomes treating ourselves. Do others good, help them grow and that is your work, that is your masterpiece. That originates in how you treat yourself.

Don’t be shy! Dare, try again and strive to do your things! You really can and things don’t have to be hard to do. In fact they are simple if you are simple. Don’t complicate yourself, you don’t have to! Things are really simple and easy.

I think it is time for us to be ourselves, who we were when we were children, natural, spontaneous, joyful and big dreamers. Just like Constantin Brâncusi used to say: “When we are children we dream, but when we are adults we create.” So, what kind of world do we want to create for ourselves? A world of plenty or a world of scarcity, especially on an ethical and moral level?

We should be as sure and confident in ourselves as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west!

Always surprising, always sunrising - Study I

Always surprising, always sunrising - Study II

Finale Patrick Matis Always surprising, always sunrising - Study III

Patrick Matis