Window to soul

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical. 

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

The title is actually multiple choice:

• Window to soul

• Window to your soul

• Window to a soul

These might seem to be similar but if you think about it, they are not.

Read closely, and think.

This one blew in on the west wind, dropped into my head one night in a dream.

The window, shot somewhere in the Mojave, an old abandoned building. 

The cloud, shot from my 12th Ave SF rooftop/5th floor deck, many years ago.

The synchronicity, how & why these two came together? i don't know where it comes from, it just arrives, i am happy for that. Perhaps the window is letting this strange cloud into your vision for a reason? Does the window have some strange mystical properties? Your guess is as good as mine, it can mean whatever you think it may mean, photos are like that, any art is like that, it's all in the eye of the beholder.

I did two versions, one in the darkroom (above), another as a photoshop sketch (below), low res, but a rather interesting version, colored w/ pencils.

Check out my self-published books:

Desert Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

California Beach Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

'Seeking the vibe' is still working it's way thru Amazon's system - it'll be there soon... i hope.

Stories to be told

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical. 

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

So here's this old battered sand-blasted book, lying in the sand at the beach. Are there stories here? Wisdom to be uncovered? You'll never know until you try and turn these pages... and they may crumble in your hand. The rocks/landscape the book leans against also tell stories, but they are much much longer ones - geology is about *long time*, millions of years.

*Read whatever you can*, no matter how it comes your way. You'll be glad you did.

Here's one last word or two, thanks to Rumi:

Oh, you don't know who Rumi was??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

“Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing 

and rightdoing there is a field.

I'll meet you there.

“What you seek is seeking you.”

“Dance, when you're broken open. 

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. 

Dance in the middle of the fighting. 

Dance in your blood. 

Dance when you're perfectly free.”

“Forget safety.

Live where you fear to live.

Destroy your reputation.

Be notorious.”

“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames”

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing 

and rightdoing there is a field.

I'll meet you there".

If you like the image above, it's in a book i have self published, available on Amazon:
Desert Trip:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

Enough said / Fini.

Dreamer

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical. 

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

I found this face carved in soft sandstone on Ocean Beach, San Francisco, some years ago. I will hope he is sleeping, dreaming, and not dead. 

Which ended up in this montage image:

V1

which then got amped up a bit:

V2

V3 - Hand-colored

The landscape - the horizon, the two trees - is at Sunset Crater in Arizona. The ragged rocks above it - tufa at Mono Lake in Ca. The lighthouse superimposed at the top is at Pt. Bonita in the Marin headlands, just north of SF.

What does it all mean?

Perhaps dreams foster thoughts ( = the trees, which grow) ...which then beget difficulties of whatever kind (the ragged tufa rocks)... but there is light at the end of this tunnel, the lighthouse shines on.

Perhaps this is about the power of thought, mind over matter?

I don't 'think' much about the meaning of the image as i am making the print.

I wrote a statement many years ago, that stands the test of time:

"I work in a very simple, traditional darkroom - One enlarger, four trays, and a collection of hand tools made from things you can buy at any art supply, or hardware store. I think it was Robert Rauschenberg (correct me, someone/anyone, if my attribution is wrong) who said it best - "It starts by YOU telling the picture what it will be -- in the end, THE PICTURE tells you what IT will be...".

I feel like I take that approach, not through any 'great design', or dogmatic adherence, it's just the way that 'comes naturally' and that is all I am interested in.

I collect negatives by taking myself, and simple camera, to places I love - the California coast, and desert - and start walking. 

I spend a lot of time with my proof sheets, and in a small room, under a dim red bulb. I'm obviously interested in things metaphysical - beyond that 

......it's up to the viewer to decide what's going on. If I haven't figured them out yet, (and I haven't, not really), why should I presume to explain them to anyone else? Many of the pictures just seem to 'happen', because the individual negatives are 'looking for each other'. I'm just a chaperone, and a really loose one at that...... But those were always the best kind of parties, right?

Can't think of any better way to end this post than quote the title to a great Aerosmith song:

"Dream On!"

Shattered

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. 

Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical. 

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

As long as we've embarked on a series of images w/ a figure in silhouette in surreal landscapes, here's another. Someone is standing on (perhaps) a log, in a dry lake (dry lakes in the desert are mostly dry, until it rains) reflecting some of the distance, but not all. The foreground surface is shattered by a rock. The lone figure contemplates the distance, an eroded desert landscape at right, a ghost town structure at left. The person has no way to go but forward, backward is shattered, time only flows one way. Guatama Buddha's last words were 'walk on'.

Good advice - take it.

Desert melody

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

The desert, the mountains leading down to it, outside Las Vegas NV. 2008.

There is music here, though it has no melody, no key, no time signature.
Random notes, sounds... created from nothing, becoming something, resounding in nothingness - and everything -  echoing in your head.
Enjoy the cacophony.
Dance.

The Bucket

Rumi wrote that:

'Only an empty bucket can be refilled'

That's what this one is about.

Think about it.

And then put that thought into action, empty yourself, and get ready...

Breakfast

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

 Breakfast

'Breakfast' - a curious word isn't it? a combination of two others. A 'fast' being a going without food overnight, a break being... well, a break in the fast. You wake up hungry. Coffee, tea, milk, juice. Eggs, sausage, bacon, perhaps some potato, fried up crispy and brown. Or if you do it California style? some chorizo and refried beans. A little cilantro w/ the beans, please. Some hot sauce in there, add it to any of the aforementioned.
And let me add extra sugar to that coffee, senorita.
The day before you is a desert, an empty slate, ready for your writing. So go at it.

About the blog, and the blogger

Your host and blog-master is a 63 YO photographer hailing from San Rafael, CA., USA.
The header image should tell you what this blog is a-gonna be about.
He first tried out photomontage in the mid '80s while shooting architecture left him with alot of time on his hands in the winter. (I mean who wants to see any buildings surrounded by snow? Nobody! If you don't have interiors to shoot? You're unemployed. He decided to *DO something*! w/ the down time... with a Beseler 45MXII at his immediate disposal (with seriously great lenses), he went wacko.)

The guy was instantly hooked, & has been so ever since.

When Photoshop finally came of age, all his photo friends thought he would abandon 'darkroom'.
Nope, no way, no how.
Yeah, he does some digital work, (which might show up here from time to time), but nuthin' beats darkroom.

He recently became aware of the fact that blogs are made to be 'mobile friendly'... and his various websites are not. Bummer! He's not going to rebuild them or pay someone big $$ to revise them, He likes the way they look, and  he doesn't really care for the formatted (=automated) looks that so many people go for.
Just take a look at his main site:
(on a real computer)
www.bobbennettphoto.net
Nothing 'cookie cutter' about it. And another thing about all the automated site building options? Yeah they have lotsa choices, but only those choices. He does the site w/ Dreamweaver, and can customize any page, anyway he wishes. He likes that.
-----------------------

I do a blog about darkroom, and get into how each image is built, show the negs, talk about the technique. It's really for darkroom montage artists, however many there are of them out there. Probably damned few.
Here, I am just going to show images, that's all. The blog is a way to get around the mobile unfriendlyness of www.bobbennettphoto.net.

So I'll be dishing out an awesome image every couple of weeks, with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.


As a prelude, take this in:

"FIRST THOUGHT, BEST THOUGHT"
DOCUMENTARY, THE CAPTAIN - Captain Beefheart of course - who else?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBa8bS_vZkM

Here's the first offering:

Explorer

One of my first darkroom montage images after arriving in Ca. in 1992.
Ends up being one of my best. A circle of stones is broken - an explorer of sorts heads out into uncharted territory, symbols of power and transcendence are on the horizon.
Shall we follow him? Yes, let's do that, but at a safe distance - ya never know what kinda trouble he might get into.

And if you'd like to get a print?
Here's the place to go:

http://bob-bennett.fineartamerica.com/