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In Perspective, Planet: The Soul and the last man! A rant by me again!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
If color is the life blood of the modern image then I would have to say that monochrome is the soul, the very barest essence of the image and what is life without soul?

Bobby, we must concentrate on life, not the soul! The latter topic should belong to a powerful deity or a bunch of them, not us and it's their concern and business. We must hold up a lantern to love and try to escape delusions that turn us against each other and to vanities. We must show that we are in essence tribes of rather willy hunting animals, expert in trickery that are so crippled by infectious delusions. The best start to healing is to admit that and strive to be noble.

Seeing the soul in photography is one such delusion. We just see samples of life that we must explain to ourselves. That's all. For sure, an uplifted person could contain any soul a God might send, but that's beyond our power. No trouble hoping for that; none at all. However, that's not a matter of this earth. We must focus of holding up the lantern and being a bridge to better things here and now. I'm not saying life does not have a soul, rather that then the consequence is that this then leads to exploiting folk, hoarding their money and have us fight one another. One basic tenet of mine, (knowing what God might be), is that most likely, s/he is not stupid and would without doubt take care of all the souls created in his/her image. Our job is to treat each other, today and tomorrow, the animals on the planet and the planet itself as eternal treasures to be protected.

Zarathustra visited me in a dream concerning the soul and life on earth.


Thus spoke Zarathustra,

If the "last man" commeth,
he has a soul that waiteth for the a kingdom to come,
I descend this mountain to the earth,
to the rope mongerer, who understands not what wisdom I speak,
to the superman inside us that might inherit this earth.
And myself?
I'm just a bridge to this and so are you
if you leave behind your trinkets, ghosts and magic.

Thus spoke Zarathustra

and the last man signed himself to the cross and prayed.

The man with the rope was lost in the knots of his making
and the crowd mumbled against me.

Thus spoke Zarathustra. As appeared to A.K.



With forgiveness requested from Friedrich Nietzsche scholars and more.
 
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fahim mohammed

Well-known member
I love your rants Asher. Life and Soul. New Orleans..till I can get my thoughts together.


In the meantime, I want to leave you with something to ponder as to why what you state is not simple!

' The first men to be created and formed were called the Sorcerer of Fatal Laughter, The Sorcerer of Night, UnKempt, and the Black Sorcerer...They were endowed with intelligence, they succeeded in knowing all that there is in the world...When they looked, instantly they saw all that is around them, and they contemplated in turn the arc of heaven and the round face of the earth.. [ Then the Creator said: ] "they know all.. what shall we do with them..Let their sight reach only to that which is near, let them see only
a little of the face of the earth!..Are they not by nature simple creatures of our making?

Must they also be gods? '

- The Popol Vuh of the Quiche Maya as quoted by Carl Sagan
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
I have been thinking about this. Thoughts become incoherent after a while. I have a fair idea of the difference between life and soul, but am unable to express it in words.

The following are just my views on the subject, and I am more than willing to accept knowledge from others.

Firstly we have to separate any religious concept of life and soul as they might relate to photography. It might be in the province of theological paintings/pics, but I am not qualified to address that issue.

these words are used interchangeably within a pictorial concept ( such as we are discussing ). Tis photograph has no ' life ', or that photograph has no ' soul' might mean that it lacks ' something ' that which would appeal or excite the viewer's senses or emotions. We are not talking about the cambrian age
where the algae had rudimentary 'life' but a picture of the vastness just occupying algae with flat light
might provide a picture with ' life' but no ' soul'.

We are reduced to then is accepting what moves us ( impacts us ) when we view a pic/painting/scene is what and how each elements forming that visual in our mind is interpreted by our mind. This again is a function of how our mind reacts to the various impulses generated by our senses and conditioned by our experience and environment.

If pressed to differentiate between life and soul, I can only offer the following:

when I heard the learn'd astronomer
when the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
when I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
when I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectures with much applause in the lecture room,

how soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
in the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

......By the Roadside..Whitman.

Best.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
when I heard the learn'd astronomer
when the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
when I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
when I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectures with much applause in the lecture room,

how soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
in the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

......By the Roadside..Whitman.

Done well, Fahim!

Still isn't that structure v. soul of our experience?

Life seems to be missing?

So how does one insert life into this.

Is it when the lion kills the deer and the hyena comes to steal some too?
Is it when a woman dies in childbirth or a father strikes his son in anger?

or perhaps it's the cry of a newborn or the first walking of a child?

Life: Parhaps "life" in photography is for the tears, screams of joy and terror?

Soul: memory, hope, comfort, consideration for all these might be then our soul.

Asher
 
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