Bared to the Bone

Walking wide eyed through this world
Is the only way I've known
Wrapped in hope and good intentions
Bare to the bone   Carrie Newcomer

There are seasons when we are ravaged by the fury of this life, and there are others where, though days may be warm or stormy, the soul is calmed and counseled by a wisdom beyond us. These past few weeks have been the latter for me.

After the amazing day on the North Cornish coast I spoke of in my last entry, my muse, Magenta, and I returned to work in a room which may well be described as a 'nest' for my photography. It was in this very room that Kay held what was to be her last exhibition - work by her students - a few short years before her death, and it was here, also, that I held my first exhibition of work after discovering the joy that Kay always wanted me to glean - of reveling in the magic of natural light and capturing images marked by that splendor.

This latest visit encapsulated the marvel of all of these joys, affirming once more the sheer wonder of working with a subject equally consumed with the goal of capturing moments of grace.

It is never easy, and never without cost, to truly engage with and discover the true value and intent of what we are - it means nothing more than an exposure of all to powers far above and beyond us - but there is one beneath all the pain and beauty who will hold us if we abandon pretense and seek what truly counts.

2013 will be very much marked for me by the days of the last few weeks and the richness of the gifts they have shared.

The Delighting

"If you live for many years, then rejoice in the pleasantness of the sun, for the light is indeed sweet". Solomon.

It's a most wonderful time of the year. The school holidays are ended, but the warmth of a pleasant summer endures, allowing opportunity for creative engagement with the winsome allure that is September.

After months of having to essentially wait for places to be less frequented, my muse, Magenta, and I reveled in a journey to North Cornwall this week. The principal aim was to obtain a set of images for a project for a local theatre production, most of which we captured within the first 40 minutes of arrival, which gave us several hours to simply delight in the moment, replete with perfect conditions, and enjoy the pleasure of creativity.

Magenta was truly adorned in the splendor of the day, skipping, playing, relishing the opportunity to be at ease amidst the clear air, the warm light, and the tingling breeze, whilst I accompanied her with my camera, seeking to capture her delight. It was all so deliciously natural and thereby "spoke" deeply of what it is to be us - creatures who readily connect with what is so naturally good.

Solomon notes that such "discipline" is essential - it is when we thrill in and at such splendor that we truly connect with what 'breathes' within the fabric of the real and the whole, and glimpse in our pleasure the one who truly cares for and provides what is good. Through our inner awareness and acknowledgment of such benefits, beauty woos and entreats us to comprehend the true value and magnitude of such riches, to comprehend the words of the true lover behind the thin partition which fades when we immerse ourselves in such goodness.

What is eternal surrounds us, but much of life is simply a noise which muffles its voice. Moments like those hours on the beach allow us to look at the world, look at each other, and see a richer purpose, a higher calling, than the vanity of the mundane, and such a view allows us to carry something precious back into our often impoverished world.

It was a truly wonderful to have such a moment. May we all know similar times!

Images: Blending, Held, Form and Sploosh. Model: Magenta. Images by Howard. Unison Photo Arts 2013.

The Deepest Need

Bared Skin, Bared Soul,

Beneath the arch of bark, tall banks of swaying fonds, in light's cherished embrace,

the welcomed bond, innocence and encounter, sheds its sweetness

and once more, affirms the goodness of such mystery, and secret wonder.

Inspired by 'Child & the Unknown' by Wynn Bullock.

It is a constant source of delight - exploring the wonder of engaging with the naturalness of being here.

It never ceases to surprise or renew, to affirm just how extraordinary it is, simply to be.

In what we hear, smell, touch, taste and feel, we truly seek an affirmation - a sensual expression that verifies the truth, the rightness of our connection to all. Photographer Wynn Bullock spoke of all our endeavors, spiritual and material as having one over-arching intent - to facilitate a means of connection to the reality which surrounds us and yet is beyond us. That is why art and other means are of such import - they allow us a way whereby we begin to engage with those realms which are of deepest import, to sense their weight and to touch, if all but briefly, a glint of some of the intentions of the mind behind such beauty and grace.

We could no doubt merely survive on a basic state of the most elemental stimulation - light and dark, food and water, air and sleep - but we inhabit a realm which lavishes upon us an abundance of colours, textures, flavors, aromas and moments that turn the caves of our souls into storehouses of some of the richest treasures in time and space - places filled with the treasures of encounter with a beauty and a grace which whispers amidst such splendor into the very fabric of our bones.

That is why the camera, the pen, the brush, or just our eyes and feet, keep calling us back to the sweetness of what surrounds us, to engage again, and be truly intoxicated by such wonder - it is the dance which ravishes, sustains and satisfies us as fully as bread and light. It calls us in the still, calm hours of embrace in twilight, or the innocence and marvel of dawn. It rushes over us in clear waters, and nestles us as we rest upon it shores.

The longing is always for more, for here, we escape the poverty of our broken, pained universe, painted with bleak streaks of insignificance, and constantly re-discover our child-like wisdom that who we are, what we are, is of infinite significance.

May we so 'escape' today.

Images: Summer Honey. Model: Allegra. Being. Model: Erin. Realization. Models: Allegra & Erin. Trinity. Models: Erin, Allegra & Magenta. From the Exmoor 2010 Collection. All images by Howard Nowlan.

The Legacy

"The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime".

Ray Bradbury - Farenheit 451.

Beyond the 'must do's' - making a living, keeping the bills paid, taking care of yourself - there's the things that really count -  when we enable ourselves and others to give and share something that truly enriches life, here and now and, hopefully, for after we're gone.

Sometimes the 'must do's' can become so burdensome that they can blur or blind us to those higher joys. I've certainly been finding that lately, as life has become more arduous. There are times when the sigh into the moment reflects the 'groan' deep within caused by the frustration of lack of resources or the loss of ability to be as aware and as responsive as you used to be. It can all simply seem too much, so it's wonderful when you encounter a moment which makes a difference and reminds you that you can make a mark and enrich the world.

I had another opportunity, on two occasions, to work with Auerlie this month, and both were a sheer delight. Not only was it wonderful to create some truly satisfying art, but it was great to be discussing all manner of subjects with another artist who is clearly thinking about what it's all for and coming up with some sensible answers.

We spent one afternoon working in the nearby woods - it was too hot to walk too far, so we worked at a couple of shady spots on the river and in between two key sessions, had a break for lunch. As we sat and discussed creativity, Auerlie shared how she was so delighted to be creating such a rich collection of images of herself at this moment in her life, and how much joy it brought - hopefully not just now, at this moment, but in future years, when she will be able to look back and delight in those photos, recalling the times that the images were made.

One of the wonders I often enjoy now is accessing the catalogue of work in the last decade and recalling the fun and pleasure of meeting so many people and working together to create something for others to share. It matters, I think, because it says so clearly that we can engage with life in a fashion that says 'this is meant to matter' - we are carried away by the richness of such moments.

We are not simply to make a living - to punch our ticket and silently vanish into the earth... to do so would be to truly impoverish life. By sharing deeply of the richness that is here and now, making that something which can genuinely endure, we truly outlive ourselves. That is our real potential - to take the splendor of life, to express to each other and ourselves, the true significance of today.



Morning Glory, Tangled and 'And, Rest'. Model: Aurelie Anais. Photography by Howard Nowlan.

gems amidst the void

"There is a human loneliness that stems from another source than a lack of companionship... it is a supernatural defect, which can only be remedied by grace". Roger Scruton.

I finally got hold of the harrowing yet astonishing film, To End All Wars this weekend - the true story of a Japanese  P O W camp of principally British soldiers forced to build a railway through the grueling cruelty of their captors in the Burmese jungle in the 1940's. Amidst some sterling performances here, we begin to discover that beneath our shocking capacity for selfish evil and inhumanity lies something we all require at our very core - to know a truth which makes us other than what we so naturally de-fault to when the veneer is gone. Even in the utter desolation of such a reality, we begin to discover what truly matters - the power of a mercy beyond us, and the manner in which that mercy alone infuses life, even in such squalor, with meaning, value and purpose.

The film reminded me just how hard it can be in our current world to hear and encounter what truly matters, especially in our own relationship to everyday life. Take what is closest to us - our own bodies, for example. We usually wrap most of our skin and nerves in layers for much of our lives, so, aside perhaps from a morning shower or an evening soak, most of us never allow ourselves to really immerse our bodies in the natural world - walk barefoot through a natural wood, or better yet, "air bathe" our bodies by spending some moments naked in such natural surroundings. Everything today is given filtered or packaged, even our recreation. In a world, however, where all such comforts are gone and all that is left is our bodily selves, to end all wars spoke of how a richer, deeper communion, undimmed by squalor and suffering, is what truly makes us precious and thereby where we ultimately discover treasure amidst earthen vessels.

What is true of life is equally true in art. We are surrounded by, drowning in, images today which leave us desolate, for not only, however 'real' or graphic their content, do they contain nothing (the soul of the subject and often the 'artist' is absent), but their only aim is to deaden our souls as well  - to engender an engagement where the result is empty and pointless beyond the immediate.

Great art marries heaven and earth, soul and grace, reality and hope.

Ours is a time which often negates such ease and freedom and desecrates the vital beauty of a person by making them less than they should be, thus the body itself becomes no more than a device, a means for gratifying our superficial approach to one another, rather than valuing, pursuing, something richer and deeper in our lives and in our society.

The lack of such yearning - for a return to innocence - is no doubt why our world currently seems so 'windowless' when it comes encountering God. The defacing of love itself, especially eros, dislocates us from the allure and call to a stillness and poignancy where such an enchantment may whisper deeply to us all.

Life, be it through crushing hardship or astonishing, unnatural joy, longs for us to be so tutored, but we so quickly choose, whenever possible, to run and escape the call of these theaters and block their intrusion with the clutter and noise of modernity.

May the author and maker of all that has lasting value continue to be merciful to us, and ignore such folly, and make us people who are fully alive - children, entirely, of His grace.

Images: Balance. Model:Katy. Poise. Model: Magenta. From Above. Model: Magenta.
All images created and owned by Howard Nowlan. Unison Photo Arts.

When the rhythm changes.

"What is a muse? In its purest form, a muse is perhaps best defined as something that triggers inspiration in an artistic or creative sense. It doesn’t have to be an inanimate object; most artists’ muses tend to be people. 

Creativity is impossible to separate from inspiration.

By trying to photograph someone repeatedly, it says both that there’s perhaps more to capture than is possible in a single frame, as well as all of the past frames being insufficient or incomplete in some way".

Ming Thein.

It's proved to be a difficult week.

It started with having to close my Deviant Art portfolio (due to them no longer facilitating older web servers, which I have to use) - a link back some seven years to some wonderful comments from other photographers across the world - and it ended with my having to cancel two of my principal outdoor shoots of the summer, as the English weather, after getting on for some fourteen months, is still refusing to deliver something resembling warmer days for more than a fleeting few hours.

It's frustrating, to say the least, but none of that, in a larger context, hardly matters.

What did matter was that yesterday, I was able to sit down with a young lady who has been working with me since last March and have a real heart to heart discussion about the wonders of life and the sheer privilege and delight of being able to be creative in this fashion, and what it really says about us.

The conversation reminded me that what all of this activity is really all about is a 'peeking through the window' to glean a glimpse, catch a taste, of the richness, the fragrance, of what all the beauty, all the grace says about what is at the very depth of us... the yearning to be part of something more than the futility and the frustration of what so often becomes 'life'.

Art drives us to engage with more than the drudgery. When we hear 'that song' or glance a view which stops us dead, we know, in such moments, that we'd give anything  to truly "be" there - not to just be a spectator, but to be transported into all that such a moment holds.

In the conversation Jesus has with the women at Jacob's well in John 4, we see how the intention of what truly matters is to lift our sights from the drag of the monotony of our views (be they practical, relational or spiritual - the women concerned here raises all three) to the real landscape of the reality we are engaged with. There is actual meaning and significance, of eternal stature, Jesus assures her, in this life. She goes away a changed person.

Life rushes us by, and we seek to do what we can to catch some of its wealth, but sometimes, we really need to come aside and listen to the real 'conversation' that is underneath what so often takes our time, because when we do, it allows us to re-orientate our perspective, and see what really counts.

Images: Beneath the Thicket. Model: Vicci.  Daydream. Model: Chrissie. Rainy Afternoon: Models: Magenta, Kari & Loella.

The Thin Line

"The temptation is always to detach interest from the person and attach it just to the body, but real beauty isn't simply skin deep, and the intention, sometimes the achievement of art is to express, through depicting the body (form), the splendor of embodiment - a being freely expressing the joy of being through that form and the grace of life itself".                                                  Roger Scruton on Beauty.

You never know what you've got till it's gone.

Some years ago, I was returning to England after a month away in Colorado in America. As my flight approached Bristol and we descended below the (inevitable) grey rain clouds, I was welcomed by the pleasing green of England - something which, I realized, had been very absent in my time away.
Listening to the radio a few days ago, a group of experts were discussing how we may, due to weather changes, have to get used to loosing the famous green lawns of the country in a few years time.

We're good at 'paving paradise', it seems. Replacing what's around us naturally with often radical changes. We often benefit, at least immediately, from such adjustments, but we often loose something along the way.

One of the reasons that art is vital is that, when done well, it causes us a moment of pause.

Like a summer's day in a meadow filled with moments of delight, art allows us to look deeper at ourselves and our world - to re-connect with questions and considerations that add depth and definition to our brief moments here, but the value, the need, for such moments can so quickly become lost if we fail to allow these pauses, allow such considerations, to inhabit us and lead is into that larger realm where beauty guides us.

The richness of art nude photography is truly achieved when, whilst creating an image, you know you are reflecting something of the depth, the value, of the person who you are privileged enough to work with - that their beauty, captured in that moment 'speaks' to the world that what truly counts about us, though often obscured by our car parks and pollution, hasn't been entirely lost or forgotten - we still know there is a treasure deeper than our pain and scars, and that keeps us wanting and relishing those rare moments when we truly encounter grace which offers a joy beyond words - a beauty which, perhaps one day, will pave paradise.


Images by Howard.
Magenta at Codda. Nicola in the Gallery. Vicki at the Tor.