60-Minute Self-Portrait Exposure During Vipassana Meditation - Bayard Direct Positive

A friend called this one my Shroud of Turin which you’ll understand when you see the subtlety of the final image at the end of the video. Subtle energies are a part of our world and our daily lives. Meditation, particularly vipassanā (U Ba Khin / Goenka and Sayadaw schools) have been a major part of my life for over 20 years. When I began learning these practices, I would have no idea how they would help prepare me for the work I’m doing now and the work that would become the most important piece I have made to date: my recreation of Hippolyte Bayard’s Drowned Man [Le Noyé] which was performed live at the Getty Museum this past May.
I’m using Bayard’s original direct positive process and formulas from 1840. The insensitivity of the process means that it requires incredible amounts of energy to record only a subtle image. Some images, like this one, seem to almost resist existing at all. I love this image and to me, it does evoke some sense of the Shroud of Turin in its recording of a mysterious specter-like image that seems to live within some ethereal space deep within the paper. The extraordinary energy requirements for the process itself and for my methods of exploring it include the necessary light energy (long duration high intensity visible spectrum and UV) but also physical stamina and mental discipline. This meditation and the exposure recorded during it lasted 60-minutes and required completely restraining all body movement for the full time. I did use a traditional photographic cast iron head brace to help prevent swaying of my head but even still, the subtle movements of breath imbue a slight ethereal motion blur. The experience is challenging, beautiful, painful, and meaningfully insightful. Much of my work is experiential, often playing with time and subtlety, and is not typically overly concerned with simply making a pretty picture, but I find this one quite beautiful in its subtlety and delicacy. The camera will stay on the image for a while at the end. Stare at it for a bit and you may get the sense of its nebulousness and a you may also find that you see more the more closely and intently you look.
Instagram version: / c8ui2tzpvh7
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