fate would have it that i am able to recall that the international buddhist film festival is happening and i was barely about to catch the final day of an photo exhibit. the exhibit was a collection of buddhist related works from pretty well known photographer such as steve mccurray and michael kenna. unfortunately, i was quite disappoint by the digital archive prints that was being display. i am not sure if it was the condition of the digital scan or digital printing process but it didn’t leave me much to desire in own medium of choice. alas, when the day comes, i am sure i will have to carry an old school film camera for back up and silver geltin film prints. the tonality of film is still quite delicious and for my own work, i would feel it necessary to play both cards. anyway, there were definitely some nice pieces of work that weren’t photos of just the artifacts of buddhism. i find those a little boring, more approriate in a book or as stock! which of course, most of the pieces where taken out of their orignial intented context of a book format. One that i love in particular was mostly a black photo of doves at night. it look like the photographer set up a strobe and excited the birds some how and they’re all flying around in different directions. the exposure was just right to pull out the details of the dove against a starless night.
i caught the documentary words of my perfect teacher”, a reference to a seminal work by one of the most revered teachers of the last 200 years. my intentoin on catching this particular documentary was two folded, one to see this one particular teacher that i’ve been interested in following and two, to bear witness to the guru/teacher relationship that was central to the documentary. for both cases, i found the movie quite rewarding as know i know i need to experience the style of this teacher. Naturally, i don’t want to set the expectations too high but i already know that this very modern teacher is not only a highly respected guru but a film director! he directed ‘the cup’ and more recently ‘travaller and magicans’. i find the manifestation of the practice in a modern visual medium quite inspiring. it gives me courage to not sperarate the pracitice between the cushion, the camera and the business.