What Is God?
As many of you are aware, having swirled around in the midst of the activity, my Creative Concepts photography class was involved in a special project recently—yes, a Charette, which lasted 24 hours. What is a charette, you might ask.
The term “charette” evolved from a pre-1900 exercise at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in France. Architectural students were given a design problem to solve within an allotted time. When that time was up, the students would rush their drawings from the studio to the Ecole in a cart called a charrette. Students often jumped in the cart to finish drawings on the way. The term evolved to refer to the intense design exercise itself. Today it refers to a creative process akin to visual brainstorming that is used by design professionals to develop solutions to a design problem within a limited timeframe.
Our charette, based on the book Mr. God, This is Anna, by Fynn, began at sunrise (6:41 a.m.) Thursday, July 20, and ended at sunrise on Friday. During this time, students, were sent out to shoot their own interpretation of God, having been, hopefully, inspired by the ideas in the little book about a very wise child whose ideas of God break through the traditional dogma to get to the core of who we are and why we exist.
These students had to report in every six hours with their newest efforts burned to disc. Contact sheets were then printed from the discs, as they headed back out to start from a clean slate.
As the evening wore on, we saw the results move past the expected shots of stained glass, churches, and religious icons brought in initially, toward what, in the end, were profoundly moving images reflecting their own personal epiphanies. It’s amazing what can happen in the middle of the night, as sleep deprivation, and its accompanying physical and mental exhaustion, sets in.
And now, for the most important part of this process, we invite you to participate by discussing the idea of the charette, your own interpretation of God, and the images themselves. Just scroll to the bottom of the blog and add your comments in the window. Hit the “post” button, and voila’.
Elaina Winter
Sidney Bensimon
Hadi Seyfi
Daniel Hollister
Jessica Sudalnik
Nate Kraxberger
Stephanie Richardson
Laura Hull
Jorge Menes
So often I forget the my creativity is not something that I need to strive for… my creativity stems from my identity which is already unique to me… what happens when I strive for unique ideas is that I look at what’s already being done and then try to think outside of that paradigm. That will never work in that it is referencing the past… therefore the past is already included. Creativity is what bubbles up out of curiosity.. floats to me in dreams… and pops into my head and makes me laugh. Creativity and inspiration work hand in hand showing me the way through the world via coincidence and miracle… every day miracles… a free cup of chai on a bad day… an open door when I forgot my key, or a class being canceled when I don’t have the homework.
In the charette my self doubt became unbearably clear. In the first session I drove around a parking lot for an hour deciding whether or not to get out and shoot. At the end of the hour I drove off having not gotten out of the car. Things that I can normally pass off as other sorts of defects…”oh that’s procrastination” were revealed for what they really are.. fear in different costumes. I also saw the familiar comforts that I usually hide behind, I wanted a clearer concept and more planning… I enjoy exploring the world with my camera but I usually keep those pictures to myself. What I show the world is the white bread of my work… processed and ready for distribution not the grit of reality, which is all we had in the charette.
This assignment was a conceptually difficult one for me. Take a subject (God) that is already highly debated, send a bunch of delirious, sleep deprived photography students out into the elements to try to capture this subject with a camera, and you will get a wide range of images. That, I came to find out, was the beauty of the charette. Whether you believe that God exists or not, you most likely have an idea of who God is (or isn’t) to you. What I see and perceive of God may be quite different from what my neighbor sees. Having said that, I found it hard at times to really understand what my classmates were thinking when they took their shots. Since it is such a personal experience, you would really have to inquire about every single image (just as they would have to ask about mine). So, I thought I would quickly explain my 2 images and explain why I shot them and what I was thinking when I shot them.
With the first image (the white door), I went out (12:41am-3:41am) looking to point my lens toward light emitting devices. I personally see God as The Light. So, with my concept in the back of my head I hit the road to find a cup of coffee. Shortly after the coffee stop I found this scene and really liked how the light fell from the bulb at a diagonal. I wasn’t thinking about it at the time but I also see the door as a possible avenue that one could take…like a fork in the road. The movie Poltergeist insists that we “stay away from the light” while I suggest that you go toward it.
With the second image, I went on the hunt (6:41pm-12:41am) for a sign that read “open 24 hours” suggesting that God is there whenever you need him. I ended up finding this particular sign attached to a strip club…which also happens to be there whenever needed. I love the neon “open” sign and the deep purples and blues on the side of the wall.
Well, that’s about it. Thanks to all that helped us pull this off. Hank, what’s next?
a tough assignment, and a good challenge. Maybe the designers should have a 24-hour charette of sorts.
It seems the photographers have done their job of interpretation. I see hope, fear, enlightenment, and confusion, all worthy descriptions of how we each see/feel whatever God may be. I simply believe God is waiting. Hopefully, he can wait at least 50 years for me. Can someone shoot that for me?
When given this assignment, I thought to myself, “Ok…God, I can do that” but what I came to find out was that I had no story to tell. My images were expected, flat, and not communicating with viewers. In reality, my problem lied in the fact that I didn’t have a tangible sense of God. I had not expressed one iota of myself in the images. The presence or absence of God was not defined in my images but that was because I had not defined that question for myself. At that instance, upon realizing that, I pretty much had a mini-breakdown. I was confused, upset, tired, and just pissed. How was it that I couldn’t explain God? After much discussion with peers who were so kind in their assistance, I came to my conclusion—I would illustrate that I could not define God in a word or object but rather a sense of a being, which I believe we all have inside of us.
I went back out for my third shoot and finally it all came together. I was happy with what I was producing. It had a sense of emotion, truth, and mystery.
This assignment illustrated the importance of storytelling in the process of design (design being a plan to create). You have to know where you’re going in order to get there and at the end of this, although I got lost on the way, I found my way to the finish line. Storytelling is now part of my operating basis in my work. A 24 hour shoot and crying, it’s a little hard to forget.
Thanks Hank.
P.S. I still can’t explain God to you but I’m okay with that.
I not sure if I knew what “story” was back in 1st quarter emotive type, but Anne certainly taught us to put ourselves in our work. So, being agnostic or atheist or humanist or whatever, my job was tough. It would have been easy to take a jab at religious ideas or go with some overly used quote or ambiguous (read: meaningless) idea of god, but who wants that in their portfolio? After thinking (and reading a bunch) about it, I started to realize what god is representative of and why he (or she or it) exists, and that’s when my project started to get interesting and meaningful to me and others. Because I did not believe in the general religious definition of god, I felt even more compelled for others to understand my point of view than if I did believe in the same god as everyone else.
And this is something I also see in the work here. It’s not contrived, not trivial - it gives meaning to a subject many people have already made up their minds about or are already disillusioned with. The objective with something like this can’t be to affect everybody a little bit, but affect a few people a lot. These photos do that. This really was a tough assignment. I think everybody’s pictures turned out great.
several things about this project appeal to me. first, the vision quest aspect of it - the sleep deprivation, if not lack of food. no doubt students had their share of coffee, red bull, etc. and it IS a vision quest, literally asking for the students to find their personal spirit. and maybe that’s what i like about the images i see here.
they each capture a spirit. the older black guy reading a copy of ‘uprising,’ as he sits comfortably in a chair in front of an ice cream shop. god? maybe that’s the guy doing the reading. the two image of the woman in white polo shirt with back to camera: real or fake angst? does god exist? the real pleasure - spirit - of children; the portraits, eyes open to what lies within; and the exteriors: god -open 24 hours, the other a closed door. the captured moments of friends, nature, space. scenes of past, some very present, and two still in sleep in a place between here and there.
all personal experiences, some of which we can clearly relate to, others more obscure, and all open to interpretation - for none of my “observations” may be what the author implied. but i suppose that’s what this assignment was: a chance to be god, to be author, and instead of taking six days and six nights, it was just a mere 24 hours to take and make some photographs. seems like you all got off easy.
i’ve a bible (visionaire 28) here at the studio that i picked up in las vegas of all places - at the aiga conference back in ‘99. each spread is an illustration or a photo or some kind of art. a photo of a kid with a slingshot aiming at a guy in a suit with a briefcase in a darth vader helmet: david and goliath (1 samuel 17:45,50-51). a b&w of a young hispanic couple on the bus. she’s pregnant, has a young kid beside them. they look like they are going nowhere in particular: no room at the inn (luje 2:4-7). each image works as direct or indirect metaphor for the many chapters and verses of the bible.
i mention that, as several of the above comments refer to storytelling. which is what we do when we judiciously crop part of the world with the frame of a camera lens. we show not only what we see of the world, but also reveal, reflect back what there is inside of us that is doing the looking. these are all self-portraits in a way, for in each thing we create we must by necessity put ourselves.
now the trick is, to go thru that experience daily, hourly, without benefit of tools and still finding ways to capture god, spirit and letting that experience infuse your work, what YOU create.
“Seeing” God, to me, is a view of life, love, light, heart, soul and creation with passion… a view of “surface” with a realization of “depth”. Well done to you photographers… as a beneficiery of your passion, my life is enriched and, I know, you have all embarked on a new path in life (that ‘road less travelled’)… I watch your journeys with great interest.
Is that the outline of the Virg in the red leather couch?
I think anytime we capture anything that is real about our experience on this earth, we are glimpsing the image of god. In that, god is so highly self-defined. What is real to me is honesty, pain, beauty, fear, courage. Each time I experience or witness these things, my faith is strengthened.
In typical Portfolio Center fashion, I was forced to think about something that made me uneasy. The subject matter of God and religion struck a nerve with me and I was forced to recall a recent personal tragedy.
Because I wasn’t true to myself, because I groveled in submission, because I played by someone else’s rules, because I accepted the limits of someone else, I ultimately lost my dignity. Dignity is everyone’s human right.
I then remembered what Hank has said to me and others on more than one occasion. We resist conflict while on our quest to be constantly led, courted, fed, acknowledged, pampered, and accepted socially-so much that we often will allow or even welcome some creeping mediocrity, or even deferring of what the true pursuit of personal happiness might be. If we resist the norms instead, though, change can come, and it is possible by embracing truth coming to a center. THE GREATER THE CONFLICT, THE GREATER THE CHANGE.
Thank you Hank for the reminder to keep my sights upon what is in my power and to envision what is even beyond that. I am still getting use to my new skin, but I am comforted by my PC family who celebrate the true me.
As a former student of PC, I have to admit that I am very jealous that this class was not offered when I was there. Getting the opportunity to look at the work created from this project is such an inspiration - the talent is fabulous as ever. To all of the artists, thanks for reigniting a fire within me; to Fernie, thanks for making me aware of this page; and to Hank, you always know how to inspire!
the 24 hour shoot was a great challenge. thinking about the assignment, i wanted to take pictures of where God was absent. But i guess i couldnt find that. i feel closest to God when i am in tune with my imagination, reading or sleeping etc…
this school has changed my life, i can feel it already, and this assignment was just another step.
The interesting thing about this project is to wonder if your interpretation of God is actually within your process, versus being something represented within the borders of your final photos.
As I sit here in my dark apartment, I ponder what God is, where He is at, and what I would do if I met Him. As I went through that 24 hour period, I thought He is all around me, He is everywhere. But, honestly, I don’t think that was the point of the assignment. I think the assignment was to make each and every participant find the core or reason we are attending PC and pursuing the our dreams. We needed to figure out how to break our thoughts down to the simplest form, which I believe to be our need and our desire to be creative. And to find that we had to look within ourselves. I’ve read something recently that struck a cord with me and I would like to share it, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you have imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.” -Henry David Thoreau. This is what I think this exercise was supposed to be all about. In this world, I think we tend to make things harder and more complicated than they actually are, and this was an assignment to simplify our way of thinking! When we simplify our thoughts we can then head in the direction of our dreams and live the life we have imagined!
Everyone did great and seemed to learn so much about themselves in this challenging 24-hour assignment. I think this is quite possibly the hardest assignment you all will ever be faced with and you were able to hang. Assignments like this one are what separate us from other schools and put us in a league of our own. At Portfolio Center, you are not just taught technique. Here you are dealt difficult, emotionally challenging assignments that you have to face head on. Here you have to get to know yourself on every level in order to be successful in your life. If you really know yourself and what you stand for then it will be easier for your audience to get the big picture and see the story you are telling and know where you are coming from.
i had to read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World as part of my high school’s summer reading assignment. it’s been years since i have read it, or seen my copy of it for that matter, but i absolutely loved the book. science fiction. religion. sex.
“these are a few of my favorite things…”
without looking at many of the incredibly deep issues buried into the story, the protagonist must deal with the reality of his “uncivilized” past and the want of a “civilized” future. He is judging this based on the perspective of the “civilized” individuals he wants to be surrounded by, or at least the woman he falls in love with. Read the book if you want to know the ending, but i think he and i both failed in that story. he failed because he did not see or attempt to find/create a middle ground. i failed because i did not learn that lesson from his mistake(s).
from 6:41am to 12:41pm I had a plan. i had a gut feeling, which was based on the reading, and most importantly, personal experience. both images above are from this first 6 hours.
from 12:42pm until the end of the charette, i had everyone else’s plan. i tried to react to what others were saying about my work, as well as general feedback that others received on their own images.
to reference anna, i kept trying to put myself into a smaller box every time we met. i have been doing this all quarter. In fact, both quarters that i have been here at PC. i get so caught up in trying to please, or represent, everyone around me that i get lost in the process.
this is not the middle ground that i tried to reference earlier. to add to what Catherine wrote:
Here if you do not know yourself or are not true to yourself, it is readily apparent to your audience, and they in turn will go out of their way to lead you in the right direction.
sounds like god to me ;o)