Lakota Shaman Lame Deer said, “The physical aspect of existence is only representative of what is real.” In photography, objects must exist on the physical plane in order to be depicted on film or digitally. The synchronicity of existence that Lame Deer asserts guides my work and life.
Life, death, and the infinite are contained within bones. They are the structure that supports us as we make our way through life. We break them but they can repair themselves, knitting together and leaving a mark where they healed. They can deteriorate, and will do so as we age and move toward death. For a while, they exist when the flesh has gone, but in their travels toward the infinite, they can leave behind a fossil, a marker which shows they were present on this plane and that once upon a time a human lived and died here.
The structure and texture of bones and the body’s core present endlessly fascinating permutations allowing for an infinite amount of visual statements. They are metaphors for who we are as humans, how we place ourselves on the earth and in the greater consciousness. Remove the flesh and see that we are all connected through the similarity of our interiors. The physical is transitory; its exterior and interior structure illustrate the psychological constructs of Émile Durkheim’s collective consciousness and Carl Jung’s collective unconsciousness. How can we access those conversations our greater selves are having, the decisions we are making and the lessons to be learned?
Understanding what lies within might ameliorate our uneasiness with mortality, and replace it with the knowledge that though we exist in this body as a singular entity, we are not alone. In this way, bones and the body’s interior are signposts indicating the journey we take toward Lame Deer’s understanding of reality.
