Eryngium Matrix
l u m i n o u s b o t a n i c a l photography
Hopi Dye Sunflowers Robert Buelteman©2012
Robe! Buelteman
INTRODUCTION TO SIGNS OF LIFE
My odyssey from landscape photographer to whatever I might be now is a story that, while not exceptional, is instructive as to the creation of the works that are contained in this book. In March of 1999, after a month working in Italy supervising the printing of Eighteen Days in June, my monograph on the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, I returned to face my frustration in creating a new distinction in the well-worn tradition of Western Landscape photography. After twenty-five years in that tradition, and three years working on the book, I elected to take another road trip to explore both inner and outer landscapes, this time to the Southwest. On a stunningly clear night in the Arizona desert not far from the Mexican border, my carefully designed life was undone by a simple realization: That my future would look like my past if I continued to follow the path I was on. In that moment out of time, I chose to cease my use of black and white film, cameras and lenses, and, as a means to simplify my creative vision, computers as well. Given the investment I had made exploring landscape art, I was surprised by my choice yet knew I was on the right path when I awoke the following day as excited about life as I had been since I was a child. In my days wandering the desert that followed, I had dreams in which I saw extraordinary visions, images of life itself. So here it begins again, ten years later, creating another book to share my art and the gift its inspiration provides.
-Robert Buelteman 2009
In the Buelteman Studio
Golden Columbine Cortaderia selloana
“These photograms are made by using the living plant itself as a filter through which electricity and fiber optically delivered light are passed, leaving the shadow and energy field of the plant exposed on large sheets of color transparency film.
Eucalyptus polyanthemos Cannaabis sativa
So, I think of these as energy paintings made with light and electricity�.
White Clematis Scatter-spined Prickly Poppy
We hunger for transcendence, for awareness of a truth beyond the isolation we experience day-to-day, and will do just about anything to gain it. This has been the driving force of my work for as long as I can remember, to express those singular moments out of time when the wall between us and the rest of the world dissolves. This ordinary thirst for a deeper connection to life drives extraordinary behaviors.
Mystics fast, mind-altering drugs are consumed, property is
willfully surrendered, rational thought is suspended, and even life itself is put at risk, all for the promise of a taste of the divine. Ironically, sometimes it is this very desire that keeps us separate from the transcendent experience that we seek. In my work as a photographer I have gained a profound understanding of life by being present to the world as it is, without thought, without interpretation. Indeed, it seems that Presence, the mind silent, the heart open, is the sole requirement for the experience of beauty. You don’t need to believe in heaven if you have ever seen a hummingbird.
-Robert Buelteman
Parrot Tulip Alstroemeria,sp.
T h e fi r s t c a t a l o g o f Buelteman’s unique cameraless, lensless, c o m p u t e r - f r e e i m a g e r y, measuring 8.5 x 11 inches and 40 pages in length, was released in the Spring of 2009. www.lightlanguagepublication s.com/signsoflife.html Robert Buelteman Studio http://www.buelteman.com/ Galleries, Books and Exhibitions
Artist’s Statement
A!"t Statement
My cameraless photographs are images created as an interpretation and celebration of the design of being. In March 1999, I began to feel a need to explore the tools of my medium beyond both their traditional and innovative uses as means to advance self-expression. In contrast to those artists who are turning to technology for additional tools to achieve their own freedoms, I turned to simplicity, mindful craftsmanship and the direct exposure of photographic materials to exercise my own freedom of expression. Using neither camera nor lens, my new technique has more in common with Japanese ink brush painting and improvisational jazz than it does with the current practices of photography. Each delivery of light, like every brush stroke or note played, is unrehearsed, and, once released, cannot be undone. The recognition that light in all its manifestations nourishes my life allows me to accept the rigorous demands of this process of imaging as an exercise in awakening. Although the technique has no relationship to those I have used previously, the quality of the creative experience is similar to that of photographing the landscape of my beloved California. The imagery succeeds once I reach a point where my conscious intention dissipates, and is replaced by a sense of being a conduit for the serendipitous dance I’ve imagined between the subject of the piece and the spirit of its expression. This shift creates a perilous condition, moving me into a world that is unfamiliar and full of risk, but vibrant and full of possibility. With this work, I am pursuing something that I cannot define, anticipate or manipulate into existence. In surrendering to the dance of art, I see my life and my work as parts of that design of being which I seek to understand. -Robert Buelteman