selfing

And no, this is not going to be about “selfies”. A guy I follow, Paul Hedderman, who expounds on the concept of nonduality, uses the word selfing to describe the activities generated from the mind that we action figures use to prop up the mistaken idea that we are “long lasting independent separate entities”, a self. I’m not going to use this space to go into that any further, he has a cool website, zenbitchslap.com, if anyone wants to hear more. That concept, selfing, seems to be a focus of what may be coming next in the images and words that are surfacing right now.

I am a huge fan of the photography of Ralph Eugene Meatyard. He worked as an optician in Lexington, KY, and photographed in that area up until an early death in 1970. He played in the surreal and abstract, hung out with the likes of Wendell Berry and Thomas Merton, who appeared in some of his photos. I stumbled on his work a few years ago at an exhibit in Cincinnati, which was dedicated to the Lexington Camera Club group, of which he was a part. I purchased that book and a used Aperture monograph of just his photos, and fell totally under his spell of unique photography.

I recently discovered a new book from an exhibit in 2017, and it was quite fascinating.

Reading this book, and reviewing the others, has also inspired my next direction. Zine 8 will be a little different perhaps.

Speaking of the zines, I am starting to see a possible end to the series. Nine may feel like enough, but we’ll see.

Cheers!