The Story of Us

It’s hard to reconcile that we are not what we see. We are not the bodies we inhabit. Our flesh belies our souls, our minds, which seem trapped in these houses. My spiritual practice tells me that we are eternal, and I believe that, despite the fact that these bodies of ours are ephemeral. I suppose this is the ultimate act of faith, this belief.

I want to recognize and celebrate the soul, that which is invisible, through that which can be seen. I’m not interested in bodies, I’m interested in minds. And minds cannot be photographed, not directly. Yet, it is not the discrete mind I wish to focus on, but the shared, unified mind of us all. Which is why no single photograph of mine stands on its own. In my mind I see them all. My Instagram feed does the best job of this. https://www.instagram.com/serpentbox/

So even this, this post, does not do justice to the idea that we are not each a separate entity but a collective consciousness. You have to take all my posts and absorb them together. And that’s not really possible. So why do this at all? Why continue to post portraits of individuals? Because when taken all together, with their accompanying text, they tell a story. It’s a story about my perception of the world.

Each person I photograph, every one, is a part of that story. In the process of telling individual stories, I hope also to tell the story of us. That’s lofty. It may even be arrogant. But I try and approach this with humility. I know almost nothing. Except this is where I am and this is all I know how to do.