The ancients recognized five elements - the basic bulding blocks of everything that is: fire, aire, earth, water and spirit. Water, at least in it's natural state, is in constant motion. At time the flow is rapid, at other times relatively still, but still it flows.
I've always been drawn to water, whether it's the sea crashing it's waves against the shoreline, or a small brook trickling over rocks and roots. The motion and the sound can be spellbinding.
Recently, I've become aware that perhaps the magnetic force water has to me is because the flow of water, which can be empirically experienced, is correlated to the flow of invisible energy that is not understood with our five senses. My experience suggests that bound up in the motion of water is a reference to Flow - the boundless energy of the universe, the energy that the ancients recognized as the fifth element - spirit.
As a child I was intrigued by photographs of water in which photographers used a slow shutter speed to blur the motion of moving water. When I started to make photographs, this was something I wanted to emulate. While many consider the blurred water to be a visual cliche, I find this approach reveals much about the character of moving water, but more importantly about the experience of Flow. |
