Enfolding Perspectives: Photographic Collage

by Simran Gleason

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Sacred Spaces

One of my goals in taking pictures has been to capture the feel of spaces that I like to be in. Sacred spaces where I like to go to meditate and train my body and spirit. I feel these spaces tend to wrap around me as I am in them, and representing this in a picture is a particular challenge that I find photocollage techniques give me a small handhold to start climbing with.

Saturday After Class (gif 256K)
Aikido West, Redwood City, California.
This is a view of the Dojo where I study Aikido.

The Watcher (gif 208K)
Aikido West, Redwood City, California.
The dojo was just as crowded during this picture, but to get the more "zen" feel I waited until the frame was clear for each individual shot. Even so, there's a foot in the mirror. "Hakama," the aiki-cat, is cast in the role of the Watcher.

Kamiza (gif 168K)
Aikido West, Redwood City, California.
The Kamiza is the shrine at the head of the class, which stands for the chain of teachers going back to the founder, Ueshiba Morehei, and beyond, to teachers forgotten in time.

In this picture I was trying to capture the feeling of standing in front of a large shrine, looking up and looking down, while at the same time having it retain its "correct" shape.

Jizo Bosatsu (gif 240K)
Kamakura, Japan.
Jizo Bosatsu, (the "Earth Treasure Bodhisattva," or "Di Zhang Pu Sa" in Chinese). A little shrine carved into a rock wall in a cenetary in Kamakura.

Zeniarai Benten, "Wash your coins for good luck." (gif 296K)
Kamakura, Japan.
This is a little temple, in a cave underground. Found only by taxi through narrow winding streets in the rain. Little stream running through for you to wash your coins for good luck and prosperity in the coming year. The sign says "wash your coins for good luck." Well, not really. It says something like "please put your bowls back on the shelf." But I've used a bit of poetic license in coming up with the name for this one.

"The Prayer" (gif 112K)
Across the street from the Church of the Nativity is a Dominican convent. Cloistered. No one goes in, no one comes out. But they have vespers every afternoon. The chapel has two parts, one open to the public, and the other on the other side of the altar, is revealed just before vespers when panels slide open and the high, earthy chanting of the nuns wanders through and echoes off the marble columns.
This statue of Bernadette's vision of the Virgin Mary is outside in a garden, and always seems to have fresh flowers and perhaps a rosary. (Recently, it seems, they've installed drip irrigation for the flowers people leave).

Simran Gleason