Thursday, June 25, 2009

senses view: an afternoon pause (a new series)



Since very early on here at be present, be here, I have been inspired by the senses as a creative prompt for both writing and photography. Earlier this month, I invited Jon to join me on a senses photography artist date; we each then created a series of photos that represented the senses (including a sixth sense of "know" that I include in my own exercises). I have written about this experience over at the Wish Studio; you can check out the essay "Through Their Lens" here (I hope you will...Mindy's site is a wonderful source of inspiration and full of goodness from so many delightful contributors).

When Mindy asked me to be her guest, I decided to write about perspective. As I thought about this topic, I began to focus on the idea of bringing in another person's perspective into our creative world. I also thought about how we might be able to see a similar experience through the photos taken by someone else, which prompted me to invite Jon to join me.

Last week, I was telling Kristen about all this and in the way that so often happens when two friends get excited about something, a new creative idea was born. I mentioned something like, "I think I might like to do exercises like this, with someone else's perspective on the senses in photographs...maybe more with Jon...maybe my friends when I get together with them..." Then we started brainstorming and suddenly it became very clear that not only could I invite people along on senses artist dates in person, but I could, of course, invite someone along in a long-distance sort of way. Which is, for me, a very good thing as I have just a handful of folks near me who might want to join me on such an adventure.

Oh how thankful I am for brainstorming sessions like this one (thank you my dear friend).

Kristen agreed to take part in the first "senses view" diptych collaboration. With each long-distance collaboration, there will be a theme that will serve as a prompt for each of us. In-person collaborations (like the one Jon and I did, see those photos here), will more than likely simply have the surrounding environment as the prompt. Also, we chose our photos without discussing, so they are paired according to each sense the photographer assigned.

This series theme is "afternoon pause." We hope you enjoy...


*******

{hear}

afternoon pause {hear}


{see}

afternoon pause {see}


{smell}

afternoon pause {smell}


{touch}

afternoon pause {touch}


{taste}

afternoon pause {taste}


{and know}

afternoon pause {and know}

(Kristen on the left, Liz on the right)