Why must our minds immediately try to "make sense" of whatever we see? Of course, it is because we need to be oriented to the world. 

   Without orientation, we lose balance. Physically, dizziness can be paralyzing. Emotionally, we need to orient ourselves to the world in order to relate to it. 

   Windows are now required in hospital ICUs because immobile, intubated patients who cannot orient to their environment (including time of day) can become psychotic.

   But what about the abstract? We can measure the quantity of a drug. Can we measure out Love in milligrams or cubic centimeters? Can we photograph it, put a frame around it, and hang it on the wall?

   If we try to divide up love into amounts, to parcel it, have we blocked Love's presence?

   If Love is an abstraction, what does it look like? I took a series of photographs of ordinary scenes along the alley behind my office. 

   Do we need to let go of trying to figure out what it is and determine how we feel. Can our spirit embrace what it cannot understand?

-Erie Chapman

All photographs copyright erie chapman 2012

Bike #2 copyright erie chapman 2012

truck #1 copyright erie chapman 2012