Worlds

It is still the simple resting of the eyes on a picture that I enjoy. I keep replicating the experience. Each is a world unto itself, a kind of refuge.

These fisheye images seem to hover like worlds in the void of space, evoking some of the wonder that astronauts express while gazing back on earth, and that I dreamt about during my second year in college prior to embarking on a more serious and lifelong practice of making pictures.

In that dream, I am in the midst of a somewhat frantic but ambiguous search thru the catacombs of ancient churches. I emerge, tired and discouraged, from the great doorway of a cathedral. Looking out into the Parisian night, I see a procession led by the eminent psychologist Carl Jung. I promptly send my question telepathically to the old man, who stops, takes it in, and points to the sky.

What I see when I look up is an orb/circle hovering in the night sky, and within this circle a clear luminous image. As my eyes meet this static, enclosed, irrefutable image, I feel my former restlessness evaporate, replaced by wonder and ease.

In a number of different mythologies as well as Jungian psychology, the circle (mandala) is seen as a symbol of the universe/self. I see these Worlds in that way, as objects of wordless attention and refuge for my restless spirit. They have also become a casual photographic journal of my wanderings upon our world.

Edward Fausty