|
Take a Closer Look Photos by Joe Martinez |
|
| As living beings
on this planet, blessed with big brains and vehicles with which to
move them around, we live in a world of stupefying complexity, and
often we see only the whole, the parts getting lost in the shuffle.
Looking at the world through the lens of a camera can bring the mundane
things that we step on every day into clearer focus, allowing us to
see the forest for the trees. I've been experimenting with macro photography, and in so doing I've been transforming myself into a tiny being on the level of a bee or other insect. What was miniscule becomes a vast landscape, surpassing the works of man in beauty, entering into the realm of the sublime and unknowable thing that is nature. I find it a wonderfully humbling experience to be able to freeze this complexity and examine it, knowing that layer upon layer lie beneath the threshold of my limited sensory apparatus, and on top of it in limitless unfathomable profusion. From the tiniest bit of moss to inconceivably vast galaxies, the same ordered chaos is seen throughout, challenging our little minds to grasp it. So far I've failed, but I'll keep looking high and low my whole life. To fail to seek is to deny the blessings of our species. I know no God but nature, and in this way I can seek understanding of the whole by looking at its little parts. Enjoy this view, because it's stuff that we see but don't register in our conscious minds. Perhaps in this small way I can look into the mind or non-mind behind the universe, or, short of that lofty goal, give y'all some great wallpaper for your computers.    |
     |
|
">Email this to a friend Copyright©2002 by Joe Martinez. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Submission and contact information |
|