Seeing into darkness
is clarity.
Knowing how to yield
is strength.
Use your own light
and return to the
source of light.
This is called
practicing eternity.
Tao Te Ching
The most
beautiful thing
we can experience
is the Mysterious.
It is the source of
all
true art and science.
Einstein
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Own an exquisite reproduction of the Light Being and be part of a “one in a million” campaign to amplify light and beauty in your life and the world...
Gift the inspiring, life affirming Light Being Fine Art Poster to yourself and special people in your life!
History of the Light Being
Susan Slotter
God comes through the cracks… In my photography/soul journey workshops, I start by sharing the story of how the Light Being came about… as so often happens, when things were not going at all as planned. This image came into being in 1992, at the beginning of my SoulScapes photographic journey, the old fashioned way, with film and a Hasselblad camera. This amazing camera was put into my hands to test out the medium format on this trip to the Four Corners Desert where Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona converge. My good friend and model Kimothy and I drove a peaceful and spectacular route through Monument Valley in Arizona, arriving with great anticipation at our destination of Page, Arizona mid-afternoon. We went straight to the Visitors Center to find out where the relatively obscure Antelope slot canyon was. I had no idea what to expect. I was inspired to come having only seen black and white details of flowing canyon walls in Bruce Barnbaum's mesmerizing book, Visual Symphony.
Armed with directions we took off, anticipating a mysterious evening shoot. Instead, we took a wrong turn in a wash and found ourselves stuck in deep sand in the middle of empty wilderness. We spent the next hours digging ourselves out, scooping sand with bare hands. Miraculously we made it out by dark, sunburned and exhausted.
The next morning, we signed up for a tour. A “tour” can be a photographer's worst nightmare — privacy and solitude are much more conducive to pristine images of nature! However, after our experience the previous day, we were humble enough to follow a crowd of over 40 people into the canyon. Humility immediately blossomed into awe upon entering the slot canyon with its vaulted peach colored walls. Silence. Immediate connection between the heart and the rock, which was at the same time solid and soft and smooth, palpably breathing. Soft peach sand beneath our feet.
We followed the group through the narrows, which became more constricted and darker with each step. Finally, in pitch dark, we were advised to put our hands on the walls closing in on each side of us to navigate through… and not to worry about rattlesnakes, which would already have moved away hearing all our feet tramping through. At the other end, as the group emerged into to the light again, I nudged Kimothy saying, — “Let's go back to the entrance where we might have some privacy.”
We disappeared back into the dark channel and nagivated back to the entrance. Amazed, we were greeted by a shaft of light beaming down that had not been there when we came in. “ Hurry, we only have a few minutes!” As we set up and were working on the composition, one of the people on the tour came around the corner, saw what we were doing, and assigned himself the role of assistant and guard, blocking anyone from entering the shot. We did only have a few minutes. In less than10 minutes the spotlight was gone.
A photographer's nightmare turned into a photographer's dream: being in the right place at the right time… an unexpected phenomenon… solitude and silence… a guardian of the temple… total presence and response in the moment to what was offered… a powerful image of spiritual perfection, beauty and light. People frequently ask if it is “me” in the image. My response is “it is all of us.” We are all beings of Light.
The lesson, which I am reminded over and over to apply to life, is that when things seem not only to be going off track but from bad to worse, stay open. There might be a miracle ready to seep through the cracks…
… And to answer the oft asked question: the Light Being was created on Fuji film prior to Photoshop, without manipulation in any aspect of creation from film to print.
