DZEN

The dark, tragic events of recent years cause a desire to throw off the dark energy and gain more hopeful vision of the future. Transformation of power from dark to the light one is always a complex path and includes many stages of development or metamorphosis. For this idea I used the ancient Latvian spring solstice custom, which was called "Chasing Birds". It was common only in a small part of Latvia, which was inhabited by ethnic group - Livonians. According to this tradition big birds symbolized evil spirits, diseases, misfortunes and performing various rituals people chased them into the forest, thus hoping to get rid of the dark forces and protect themselves from evil and diseases. In this case, since I had focused on buto aesthetics, it seemed interesting that tradition of “Chasing Birds” is known in Japan as well. The title “Dzen” can be viewed from different aspects as well, as in Latvian this word means to chase away and at the same time the state of mind – Zen or Zen Buddhism. All the photos are direct positive reversal prints shooted on large format camera. To gain positive image, photo paper itself goes through several stages of transformation.