Shadow Studies...

Shadow Study - New Mexico

Both light and shadow are the
dance of love.

-Rumi

 If light is the supreme metaphor for the contemplative photographer then shadow, it's antithesis, must be of equal importance.  One defines the other.  Studying the pattern and richness of the shadow world is an immensely rewarding pastime for the contemplative photographer.

   My folio New Mexico: Land of Light and Shadow (all my folios are  now in the side bar right here on the blog for easy access) is a study of these metaphors as in this image of the delicate shadow of a weed silhouetted on the silvery, rough wooden plank. 

   In Christine Valters Paintner's wonderful new book on contemplative photography, Eyes of the Heart, she devotes an entire chapter to this interplay...The Dance of Light and Shadow, so important a subject it is. 

In photography, both light and shadow

are required to make an image, and so

the medium invites us to consider ways

to integrate both of these gifts in our own

lives and contemplations.

                                                                                        -page 42 

   We tend to dwell more on the light than the shadow, both in our camera work and in our personal lives.  It is worth it to spend a day just exploring the shadow land for what is hidden there has much to tell us.  The link below is to the work of Wing Wong, a photographer we looked at in the post,  Get Closer.

Shadow Study