an eye in the world » seminary

Almost Graduation

Grant — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:36:37 +0000

Here’s my annual blog update! (Actually, once I’m finished with seminary I will be updating this more often.)

I continue to work on various photographic projects. A new website will be coming this summer, collecting all of my current project portfolios in one place. During May/June, I’ll be participating in SoFoBoMo (Solo Photo Book Month), right now planning a photo book that combines my love of labyrinths and night photography.

Thanks to some friends in grad school, I’ve discovered Twitter. I post fairly frequently under the name eyeintheworld. It also connects to my Facebook status (something I don’t use very much) if you are a Facebook user.

May 24th marks my graduation from the Pacific School of Religion and the end of a 5 year long journey through seminary. I will be very happy to be done, and a little sad to not be seeing some of my favorite people so frequently anymore. I’ve recently taken a part time chaplaincy job with Sutter Hospice San Francisco and will continue there for the time being. Robin and I are hoping to stay in Oakland for the next year or two (at least); we’ve both come to like living here very much.

In July we will be hiking the John Muir trail, 220 miles from Yosemite National Park to Mt. Whitney. I can hardly wait for the time away for wilderness recharge. It feels too long since I’ve had the chance to just be in the backcountry.

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Art with Soul

Grant — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:11:08 +0000

Thanks to everyone who came out to the art fair at PSR (The Pacific School of Religion) on Tuesday. All of you helped make this a successful first showing of my photography. It was a great pleasure to share my work and receive your appreciation and feedback.

I’m working on getting an online gallery up featuring the prints that were on display on Tuesday, so you can look at them online. Future enhancements will also include online purchasing through Paypal (which has free and secure credit card payments), hopefully sometime over the next week.

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forgiveness

Grant — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:23:00 +0000

A fellow classmate in my “Mind, Habit, Change, and Conversion” class this past semester did a project on forgiveness. He wanted to expand the paradigm of forgiveness from a way of responding to major transgressions and additionally frame forgiveness as a mindset that we cultivate day-to-day. Ideally, we would all practice forgiveness moment to moment in our lives, forgiving everyone from the driver that cuts us off to the spouse that betrays us.

I find his idea similar to Buddhist notions of mindfulness or the Christian ideal of praying constantly in every moment. Obviously you could take this in the wrong direction and become everyone’s metaphorical doormat, but I find some wisdom in what he was doing.

This is even more interesting when you consider his context: as an independent lawyer who often takes on cases involving tenant rights. He says that one of the common expectations that clients have is that he will be a “tool of vengeance” by helping them win lots of money from people who have committed transgressions against them. These expectations seem to go somewhat beyond the system’s intent, which is to compensate people for damage and harm done to them.

I hope that today you will practice forgiveness and forgive me, as it’s been so long since I posted anything on this blog!

It is now summer, and while I actually do have one more paper to finish by the end of this week before my semester is officially over, I’m looking forward to the free time this summer holds. In addition to much more frequent blog updates, I’m expanding my posting scope, so it’s not just my supposed deep thoughts and photographs, but lots of random stuff I run across that you might find interesting, everything from YouTube videos I like to tips on making cheap photo equipment. It will be a little more rough around the edges and stream of consciousness, which will hopefully make it a little more personal too.

So, if you’re willing to give me a fresh start, check back every couple of days for some random interestingness in my small corner of the web.

Much love,
G

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finding the photograph

Grant — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:10:00 +0000

I’m taking a class this semester called “Photography as Ecological Meditation”. The basic format of the class goes like this: we read a meditation written by the professor on a particular topic, we go out and make photographs in response to the meditation, and then pick one to share with the class. Each class session is a slide show where everyone gets the chance to make comments about where the picture takes them. Then the photographer reveals her/himself and gives context and any personal feelings about the image. I like this a lot–it’s giving me a chance to approach the emotional aspect of viewing photographs (instead of just the technical) and see some of the amazing work done by my classmates.

The ecological part is pretty flexible–referring broadly to our surrounding environment. So it doesn’t have to be any specific kind of nature photograph. The picture above was for the first class–the theme was darkness (what I nice one to start with). Thankfully, the next one was light (balance is good).

It’s been an interesting process for me to figure out how to go about making a photograph under these assignments. Do I brainstorm possible images and then go out and make the one that I think will be the best? Or do I go out and explore with my camera, putting on this new filter of a specific theme onto how I see? Do I just try to make what I think will be the coolest photograph that will impress the professor or have the most impact on the class?

This one I happened upon (while not specifically looking), though I saw it because when thinking of images about darkness (particularly personal darkness in the form of depression, something I’ve dealt with) tunnels were on my mind. Will finding themed projects like this spur my creative possibilities and help me make images I wouldn’t have otherwise envisioned? It seems so, my friend. Sometimes structure is good, even for creativity.

By the way, don’t worry about what it is, just let it speak for itself ; )

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