Have you have noticed in many of the photographs I’ve chosen from Burtynsky’s Water exhibit, you don’t see water?
I’d like to suggest, absence can affect us as much as presence.
We might say: absence is presence.
I heard the phrase, “absence is presence” for the first time as a docent in training for the Des Moines Art Center. I’m not sure I even understood the phrase at the time, but my body registered it as true and my mind never forgot it.
Through the years since, I’ve begun to understand more of what it means to me. The first time my siblings and I gathered to play Pepper after our Dad died, we could feel his absence. And he was very present.
Burtynsky writes that he chose water as a subject after working in Australia – the first continent in this era to begin drying up. So the absence of water brought it to his attention.
What does this phrase suggest to you? Is there presence in absence or absence in presence? Both?
Have some fun with the phrase and let me know what you come up with. Hit reply to this email or go to the blog on the Web and enter a comment.
The image above is the Colorado River Delta #2. What we are seeing is the pumping action of the tides; the tree forms have etched themselves into the sand and they keep getting bigger and bigger as time goes on according to Burtynsky. (Information from my wonderful App.)
Thanks for exploring the mystery – Nicky Mendenhall