Blessing the Space Between...

   One of the themes for our photography at the Bethany Springs retreat was the space between.  This is one of the images I made for that theme.  As it happens, I found a wonderful pin on Pinterest that fit right into this theme and I would like to share it with you.

   In Japanese, ma, the word for space, suggests interval. It is best described as a consciousness of place, not in the sense of an enclosed three-dimensional entity, but rather the simultaneous awareness of form and non-form deriving from an intensification of vision. Not something that is created by compositional elements, it is that which takes place in the imagination. -Larry Schenck

   I love this image because, while it seems that the two chains could be one chain that connects the two bolts you are not really sure because they disappear out of the frame of the photograph.  They go up but do they connect?  There is a real tension here. This is one of those incredibly simply images that I would not have even noticed on our contemplative stroll had I not been asked to look for the spaces between.

   I think this is a great practice for contemplative photographers to do from time to time and I thank Kim Manley Ort for suggesting this at our retreat.  Don't look at the objects, look at the spaces between them.  I remember my first year in art school when our Drawing 101 professor set up a pile of easels in the middle of the studio and told us to draw the easels...not by drawing the easels themselves but drawing the spaces around and in between the easels...the so-called "negative" space.
  
   This is the Japanese character for "space".  As you can see, it is anything but "empty".  Next time you are out with your camera, focus your attention on the space between and see what it reveals to you.  I doubt you will ever consider that space "empty" anymore.