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Lotus 2

Lotus Number 2 and big decisions

A few weeks back, I was asked to write the foreword for an upcoming art exhibit, In Triplicate, which opens Friday at the Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank, NJ. What I wrote centered largely around the meaning behind photographs; said differently, photographs aren’t necessarily a reproduction of a scene, rather, they represent thoughts, feelings, ideas, or are visual representations of a message the photographer is trying to communicate. In art shows where there is no artist statement to give you some clues as to what the artist is trying to communicate and without a background of the artist, understanding the artists message can be tricky, but you are free to come up with your own interpretation which is what’s great about art, the personal experience you have with it. 

This photograph of a Lotus is the 2nd in a series from negatives I made in August 2017. When I was making the lotus negatives, I had made the decision that I needed to leave my job in corporate America. There was nothing wrong with the job, I had a stable place in the company with respect from peers and superiors alike, but through the past few years, I thought more and more about our limited time here on Earth, about how quickly time vanishes, and about doing something that years from now I could look back on a smile in happiness that I spent my time doing something that had meaning and reward to me. 2017 started and I knew I had to stop thinking and act. I pondered the idea of leaving the corporate world, knowing what I needed to do, but still needing to draw up the required courage to pull the plug on stability, in favor of chasing my passion. 

So, when I saw these Lotus, I thought of what they symbolize. One of these symbolisms in Buddhism is the lotus represents rebirth, and this resonated with me...deeply. I made various negatives over a few days of the Lotus flowers in different stages of bloom, from the upside down tear dropped shape flower that has yet to open, to the fully opened and spread out version, with this photograph being in the middle of those two stages, just beginning to open up. A few weeks after I made this negative, I tendered my resignation to my employer. Many things have happened since then that I could not have foreseen, all of them good and content for another post, but I wanted to share with you, the background on a simple lotus photograph and its significance to me, as well as why I made it.