PHOTO GALLERY - Delphinium
DELPHINIUM’S TRANSUBSTANTIAL DREAM
The subject of human transformation, both psychic and physical has preoccupied my work for some time. In the realm of our dream lives, we may mingle with archetypal figures and through deeper investigation can be transformed by these encounters. Learning the particular language of our dream world can provide a lifetime’s journey and source of creative strength.
In Delphinium’s Transubstantial Dream, I set out to capture the essence of a dream that seemed to presage my life at that particular junction. Delphinium was the homeopathic remedy that induced the dream during which I was entirely changed from flesh to vapour and then to dust. My consciousness had no boundaries. I could feel the collective energy of all that existed around me. I experienced a profound sense of completion and peace that has no parallel in my earthbound state.
The photographic sequence narrates the five stages of this process: sleep moving through impatience, acceptance of light moving through transubstantiation, and finally the achievement of grace.
Photography has always felt like magic to me and working with infrared film is truly an alchemical process. The heat-sensitive film quite literally captures “unseen light” and the results are often unpredictable. During the shoot my subject was immersed in the narrative of my dream and became immune to earthly elements, particularly the cold of early February. It was the early hours of the morning and a hint of sun appeared just in time to illuminate the textures of our setting. At times it was difficult to distinguish the photographer from the subject. Somehow, in the creative process, we both became the dream.