Tag: theology

by jad

I Confess that Nothing was Planned

I wrote something before I went to the rally for Lebanon on Broadway. I described how a lot of people were asking me variations of a question: how are you? And when I showed up, I was still in that headspace. The one where I’d replied in the best way I could. Honestly, concisely, with equal-parts appreciation and reserve. I went to the protest out of a sense of duty, but I was feeling burnt out, and it was probably showing in my photography. I’d admitted that I’d been copy-pasting a few replies. I tried to be genuine without over-performing … Continue reading “I Confess that Nothing was Planned” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 8

Today’s our last full day in Costa Rica and if it hasn’t become disgustingly obvious to you, it is very much clear to me how spoiled we’ve been here. It almost breaks my heart to feel this refreshed and renewed. This is where we’re spending our last few nights. How is this our life? It isn’t — this is only temporary. And yet, what is life but temporary? Is this disassociation, or is this mindful presence? It’s both. It’s the shoreline of our dual realities, sometimes lapping, sometimes crashing, always churning and changing — life’s metabolism. The creation myth of … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 8” →

by jad

God’s Eye

“You seem to like minimalism. Or you try to make things look more minimal.” “Your pics kinda feel like a god’s eye view. I guess if the god roamed the earth because it was curious to witness people.” Two different people shared their insights into my photos the other day, which made me reflect on my photographic eye a bit more. It seems not unlike my writing style. I try to express myself effectively and economically, with a high impact to investment ratio. That’s probably where the minimalism comes from. But it’s more than just that; in both modalities, I … Continue reading “God’s Eye” →

by jad

Christine’s Project: Kent

Working with @christine.bingham.art on this photo-documentation project has been a thrill and an honor, and sometimes pretty nerve-wracking too, since I only picked up a camera two years ago. The learning curve’s steep, but I’ve always learned best in situ and in media res. My brain’s wired that way. This particular shoot, documenting Saint Kateri, was especially poignant. It took us over a year to make it happen, and in that time, we got to learn so much about Kateri and the people of Kanawake, which we even had the privilege of visiting (it’s just outside of Montreal). So, I’ve … Continue reading “Christine’s Project: Kent” →

by jad

Light-Dark

I posted this image on a Sunday in 2013, a couple of days after taking the photo at a Catholic spiritual retreat I was gently compelled to go to by my parents – I wasn’t a fan of the church at the time. The image is taken from a workbook, and I seem to recall that the ocular illustration was meant to convey some theological concept or another — from aleph, the lid, to dal, the pupil — but I don’t remember what. “Contemplate,” it says. I do remember that this retreat was the first time I learned what an … Continue reading “Light-Dark” →

by jad

Christine’s Project: Mizyara

Today, I had the privilege of visiting a most unique shrine with the most touching story, a living tribute to not just one saint, but two—Maria Goretti and her unlikely acolyte, Raya Chidiac. It was an honor to be greeted by Raya’s mother, Marie, who has made it her ministry to share St. Goretti’s message of universal forgiveness through the heartbreak of losing her daughter Raya in a cruel parallel across centuries. And when she says “through” Raya, she means it quite literally: it was Raya who came to a stranger in a dream, asking for a shrine to be … Continue reading “Christine’s Project: Mizyara” →

by jad

Saints in the Mirror

This one killed it last night, and those aren’t even my words; it’s what so many who were there at her “Saints in the Mirror” exhibit have been telling me all day. I know how hard she’s been and still is working on this project, and I couldn’t be prouder. Two of the twelve pieces from @christine.bingham.art‘s “Saints in the Mirror” exhibit at Epiphany yesterday, depicting Sor Juana and Saint Rose of Lima. You should ask Christine about her collaborative process with our cat. I was so happy to see so many of you there to support Christine! It was … Continue reading “Saints in the Mirror” →

by jad

Infra-Politics & Photography

The thing about infrastructure is that it never just does what it’s supposedly designed to do. Infrastructure congeals and conceals social interest. It’s “inevitably imbued with biased struggles for social, economic, ecological, and political power to benefit from connecting (more or less) distant times and places” (Graham and Marvin, 2001). In other words, “one person’s infrastructure is another’s difficulty” (Starr, 1999). Highways, dams, and pipelines have always been flashpoints of protest when they displace and disrupt lifeways and communities; they leverage the same logic as that of nuclear “sacrifice zones” – those spectacular feats of dispossession for the national good, … Continue reading “Infra-Politics & Photography” →

by jad

Nuclear Culture & Photography

“The first bomb, set to go off at a height of some five hundred metres, produced a nuclear flash which lasted one fifteenth-millionth of a second, and whose brightness penetrated every building down to the cellars. It left its imprint on stone walls, changing their apparent colour through the fusion of certain minerals, although protected surfaces remained curiously un-altered. The same was the case with clothing and bodies, where kimono patterns were tattooed on the victims’ flesh. If photography, according to its inventor Nicéphore Niepce, was simply a method of engraving with light, where bodies inscribed their traces by virtue … Continue reading “Nuclear Culture & Photography” →