Coney Island

Coney Island Tower
"Coney Island", NY

The soul selects her own society,

Then shuts the door;

On her divine majority

Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing

At her low gate;

Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling

Upon her mat.

I've known her from an ample nation

Choose one;

Then close the valves of her attention

Like stone.

Emily Dickinson

My friend Harry Sandler was kind enough to take me and fellow photographer Mindy Véissid to Coney Island to get inspired and just shoot.  It was an incredible day with everything from fog, sea mist, and sunshine.

All three of us have different shooting styles.  It really didn't matter even if we stood in the same place, there was no spirit of competition between us.   Photography is an art of perception and distortion.  It is not any different than painting.  Paintings are not simply about reality, but about how the artist perceives his own reality.

I messed with this image several weeks ago, but it didn't even quite measure up to this.  The main reason is because, I am in a different creative space than I was several weeks ago.  The quality of my fine art work lacked oomph.

My friend Eunice O'Hanna from San Miguel us to describe her inspiration ebbs and flows like this:  "Al, it would just come to me, and then it would stop." 

Harry knew exactly what he was doing when he took me to Coney Island.  Like a big brother he took me under his wing to nudge me back into my creative space.  That space is what makes everything else including work worthwhile.  The artist in me does have to come out and play.

Change

"When we can no longer change a situation,
we are challenged to change ourselves."

                                                       -----Viktor Frankl

No one dislikes change more than me.  I don't readily subscribe to it.  The thought of It upsets my metabolism.  Real growth, however, involves not only accepting change but embracing it as well..  We need to learn to accept some of the events that happen as omens.  We can learn to adapt by changing how we think and view ourselves:  victims or participants in life.

We meet people along the journey, shamans, who guide us through the next levels of our journey.  I've met many.  One in particular comes to mind, Eunice O'hanna.  I met her on a business trip to Mexico where I stayed by design in my favorite town, San Miguel de Allende.

Of course, I did my usual daily walk and scouted places to photograph.  The clock was ticking and I was running late to leave on my business trip for the day.  As I walked passed this home, I noticed an interesting sign.  It read Casa de Collares (house of necklaces) and museum.  It intrigued me, so I knocked on the door and was greeted by a very energetic silver haired lady, Eunice O'hanna.

She welcomed me in.  I was immediately in a very different state of mind as I walked through the doors and into the front of her home, a living workshop and museum.  All of my senses which had been dormant, came to life.  I could feel an energy race through me, it was uncontrollable joy.  She noticed my enthusiasm and asked: "Would you like to see the rest of my home?"

It was absolutely breath taking.  Every wall was painted with Mayan images she had studied and recalled.  Each room had colors that cheered my soul.  There were details that made each part significant.  Her home had truly become a living museum.  "i've always wanted to have a museum", she told me.

Of course I had all of the wrong equipment with me and no tripod.  I started to shoot and shoot and shoot.  She was thrilled by my curiosity and encouraged it.  She took me back to her studio.  I would like you to take something with you.  Something to remember me by. On the table was a bowl of rocks that she had collected over a lifetime.  Please take one.  It was a different type of Holy Communion that day. I took a salmon pink stone and placed it in my pocket.  It has since travelled with me everywhere.

Change is not easy.  Sometimes we change because we have to.  It's so much better, when we choose to change so that we can grow.  My pink stone reminds me of how I changed and what I felt as it happened.