Symbolism | Studios of Neptune

Symbols

Finding symbolism in the world around us is a natural way to find meaning in life. It feels to me, in our modern lives and specifically in our material obsessiveness, we have generally lost a sense of life. Or maybe it's just that in the persistent anxiety that it is to run a life by the tick of a clock, we might forget to let life in.

Conceptualizing and formalizing the human instinct to see the world in symbolism has been the job of artists for as long as we have been human. The awareness of symbolism is, I think, perhaps, the most basic building blocks of our reality. The truth of a symbol and its proximity to consciousness, divinity, the original truth, has a wider grasp on our collective imaginations. This material world is something we can see and as we organize our values, we look to have symbolic mirrors that confirm our reasons for living, our direction, our spiritual discretion, our mistakes and successes, our possibilities... The longer I'm alive, the more I must accept that these symbols are shown to us as often as we create symbols from our own minds. We are empowered by our chosen actions, so that direct material consequence is inseparable from our desires, our feelings and opinions. But the linkage between people and our world is built both individually and collectively simultaneously and always with reference to a truth of existence we don't commonly have direct access to. Where time to mature and grow as individuals by our own needs as society navigates the strength and value of symbols for their proximity to the original truth and their context with each other. We reference collective symbols in our own personal narratives and we qualify them... but we can also sense when a collective symbol is fading or rising. Children need different symbols than adults and certainly not all adults want the same sorts of symbols in their lives. And as much as we might disagree over what is good and true in this world, as we grow we each build symbols that support the life force as best as we understand.

In this context we can say that photography can be the art of symbol making. My symbols here, in that respect, are perhaps a little lazy but I like that I found them as they are.

That American Life

The Road Ahead

Perseverence

I have always had a life perspective that appreciates low impact living. All life is sacred to me and there are factors in this world that make it very obvious that many large numbers of people do not share the vision. A lot of the symbolism I personally see in the tangible world reflects the globalization of our human efficiency structure (quite insectile when you stop to think of it). I don't expect everyone to jump on the fullness of my thoughts here. But I have always known at heart that anything new can be disregarded if it's a bad fit and the old ways should be disregarded when they are no longer good. We are all on our own journey and what is good for the goose may not be perfect for the gander and some of us are ducks and some of us are songbirds and all else, whatever. We all share this earth.

The following is a photo "essay" where each photo is like a 1000 words. And since I'm not using words, clarity of purpose might be somewhat obscured and we must remember the nature of symbols and that individuals differ from their groups sometimes as much as groups of people differ from each other.

I also want to ask, if you're connecting to what I'm saying, to start taking more pictures that show your perspective. Collect them, share them, talk about them with friends. The same photo will mean different things depending on where it is in the world and who sees it, what other photos are near it, etc. This concept touches on the idea of "media literacy" and we should all be the better for knowing the source's intentions.