When I first developed the idea for the travels during 2020, I had a goal in mind that could rather be called rather documentary.
It was my intention as a photographer to make four major journeys, one to each wind direction in Europe. Each trip would last about four to five months, and would focus on different aspects of the biosphere crisis through photography and a written report that would eventually find its reflection in book form.
Due to life circumstances, that project has been postponed. The past few years have been intense on a personal level. In early 2021, shortly after announcing my project, my father passed away. In early 2023, my wife Agnes' mother passed away. Needless to say, this was an intense process that required time and attention. I have written about these processes in the blog posts
‘Fragments of a Life’ and ‘Old News’.
In addition to these intense events, there were other processes in life that caused the work on the travel project to be delayed. But there is no rush, and life is exactly as it should be at every possible moment. Just as a journey is not about arriving, this project is not about a quick result. Life IS the journey.
Originally I wanted to portray the ways in which the climate- and biodiversity crisis has already affected our living world, and how much the natural world is already suffering from our massive impact. But I also wanted to portray places and people that are already showing how things can be done differently: new ways of existing in our biosphere in terms of agriculture, economy, urban planning, eco-tourism, fishing, mobility, and so on. And also it was my intention during those travels to capture the beauty that remains for us to cherish. All my life I have been a photographer in addition to a being a painter and visual artist, and have always photographed nature on my travels. So trading in the painting brushes for my camera was not too disruptive. You can read about the original travel plans in more detail in this blog post.
So life has necessitated postponing the travels, but in the meantime I continued my research for the project unabated. However, that research gradually took on a different focus: as I delved more and more into all aspects of the metacrisis, I also realized more and more that there is fundamentally one thing that causes us to keep making the same mistakes: our story about the world and about ourselves, and our beliefs about what that world actually is. Our metaphysical belief system, so to speak.
I gradually realized that I was no longer interested as much in renewable energy, mobility, organic farming, and other ‘regular’ ecological themes, but rather in the underlying beliefs that cause us to continuously come up with the wrong solutions today, and that seem to make it so difficult or impossible for us to exist in harmony with our environment. My research took me into very diverse fields, such as systems thinking, evolutionary biology, quantum physics, the study of consciousness, astrophysics, anthropology, history, economics, comparative religious studies, religion and mythology, philosophy, and so on. From my research a picture began to form that connects many points of the seemingly endless complexity of our current situation into a consistent whole that can offer some clarity not only about the underlying reasons for our problems but also about the possible solutions to this convergence of crises.
As I write these sentences (October 2024), I have set out to write a book about the insights I have gained from my research. Originally I had planned to publish a book only after the first project travels, but I now feel that it should not or cannot wait that much longer, and that I can already share some of the ideas about our current situation and the possible other ways of thinking, feeling and conceptualising our way forward. I am also being encouraged very much in this by my wife and spiritual partner Agnes, who is on a similar path of research, albeit by different means.
The travel project is not off the table: I am still intending to proceed with these photographic journeys at some point. Something inside me whispers to me that photography will still play a role on my path, and that portraying the magic of our planet will be part of my coming endeavors.
But rather than the documentary-style, photo-journalistic expeditions I had envisioned, the photographic project journeys will rather become pilgrimages to the sacred beauty of nature, because I feel that is where my greatest passion lies when it comes to photography. Perhaps beauty can save the world, as photographer Chris Jordan stated in this Musing. Maybe the renewed recognition of the sacred in that beauty can break through our defenses and reconnect us to the beautiful whole of which we are a part. As Thomas Berry puts it, “The lack of a sense of the sacred is the essential flaw in many of our attempts to adapt our human presence to the natural world. As the saying goes, 'We will not save what we do not love.' It is also true that we will not love or save what we do not experience as sacred.... In the end, only our sense of the sacred will save us.”
I am now somewhat less enthused by my original, more documentary premise than before, and I am going to follow the voice of my heart. What excites me more now is exploring the beauty of our living world, that magical and mysterious presence of all that lives in our biosphere, and trying to capture the sacredness of that beauty in the way I best can.
As I said in my statement of intent in 2020, I don't know where my path will take me. But as C.G. Jung once said, “If the path before you is clear, you are probably on someone else's path.”
A Biosphere Project is an exploration in consciousness, and a nomadic life project. The road continues, and behind every bend a new panorama awaits.
In the blog feed on this page, I will share blog posts related to the travel project, and keep you updated on how my plans evolve. Possibly I will combine writing my first book and making the photographic pilgrimages', since I really like to travel and I am also good at concentrating on writing when I am on the road.
To be continued! Don't forget to subscribe to the blog of A Biosphere Project if you don't want to miss any updates!
“As you start to walk out on the path, the path appears.”
- Rumi
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
- St. Augustine
“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the Universe.”
- Anatole France
“If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet”
- Rachel Wolchin
