I did this image a couple of months ago and for reasons now forgotten, never posted it. ?Time?s Relative? is intended as an observation on the long march of Darwinian evolution and our perceptions on the passage of time. The Greek ruins in the background are about 2,400 years old. The creature in the foreground, known as a Coelacanth, has inhabited the oceans for more than 360 million years. Until 1938, when a living specimen was discovered, the Coelacanth was thought to have disappeared at about the same time as the dinosaurs. Sixty-plus years ago, news of a living Coelacanth caused a major scientific sensation since the species was considered to be the direct ancestor of all tetrapods -- land-living animals, including homo sapiens (which is one reason why it?s embellished with human arms and legs). Recently, the Coelacanth has been demoted a rung or two down the evolutionary ladder. No longer is it considered our missing link with the ocean primeval. That distinction now belongs to a crocodile-like reptile, which goes to show that when it comes to time, space and evolution -- everything's relative! When I looked at this image a few days ago, I realized how neatly it also encapsulates the evolution of some of my own ideas about mythology and photography. For a few more thoughts on those topics, see the first comment below.
oh! i read your explanation and now i see where you find your inspiration. "if you can imagine it, then you can create it"... sounds very interesting, i'd like to represent a weird dream i had: giant flying jelly-fishes were reproducing themselves by fission... But i won't be able, don't know where to find jelly-fishes here! :)
I thought Uelsmann sounded fimilular! Yes Maggie's husband. You seem to have a little of them both as a influence, and great influences they are. Jerry did amazing works, I dis not know he had an exhibit here in NY, I must go see, I am overdo for a trip into the city anyway. I found the Ceolacnth fairly amazing too. Amazing how long a species can exist if it minds its own business. Fabulous work Jim.
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B:)liana {K:30945} 11/6/2003
Thank you my sweet blue Jim. Thank you so much, but YOU ARE A TRUELY ARTIST with PS. I just love your work and I am amazed what you can produce with your imagination. I have no PS skill so I am an ordinary photographer ;-) Kisses and hugs, Biliana
Very interesting. I love what you have done here. This is a fantastic piece of art you have. I understand exactly what you are doing here.
Have you ever looked at works by Scott Mutter. His ideas though different from yours are still very similar in which he takes images from different photos and puts them together creating very interesting pieces.
Okay, now that I've spent way more time than I ought to reading this thread...I will not leave you with any profound thoughts - only that myth is of such fascination to me that I"ve never been able to tackle it head-on (with any sucess) in my writing or photography. Consequently, I content myself with creating my own representation of the universal.
That said - this piece is a hopeful piece. I am not sure if I can pinpoint why but something about this feels inherently hopeful - perhaps it is the relativity of time and the possibility of escaping it entirely.
When I view your work, I am amazed by the multiplicities of the images, and certainly the symbolism is not lost to me. But what "hooks" me, and keeps me visually attached, studying, going back and studying more.... is the beauty, the outright grace, of your strange creatures, and their oh-so-comfortable interaction with the environment you create for them.
As usual, your work leaves me dumbstuck, shaking my head in appreciation, awe and admiration.
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B:)liana {K:30945} 11/5/2003
Wow.. my blue blue friend. what can I tell. With you wonderful Jim the time is not existing. bravo. great. wonderful. Kisses, biliana
Jim, I'm not sure if to say Wow! on the unique and beautiful image or your wonderful thoughts, I guess both! GC says it well and I'll second him on you being an anchor for this site. Your care in your presentation shows a care for us, you are beyond helpful, you are a blessing to us.:)
I loved the pic of your daughter on Halloween that you posted somewhere here. She looked like she was ready for a fun fun time. :)
It's so uplifting to have such cerebral work here - the text reveals as much as the image. Brilliant as always, I think you are the anchor of this site in that you provide an academic grounding to the purely visual.
Didn't I tell you...you've already got the introduction to your book! I so enjoy reading your explanations and thoughts. I'm glad you explained how long it took you...I've been driving myself crazy trying to put some lights behind some flowers that you explained to me once. Small baby steps! As it is with time and the evolution of the earth.
Jim, Incredible subject matter here! I want to get back to you on this one. Really amazing. So very well done...research time buddy....But before I leave, your work is so interesting in so many ways, photographically and philophically. I love it. Makes me think and see just a little bit more. And on a lighter note: I think acid flashbacks! I will be getting back to you on this one.
......scientists, philosophers, and religeons have spent millions of hours and incredibll resources trying to figure it all out. Personally, I've taken the next step and now wonder not whether the universe was created via a "big bang" or if it's expanding, contracting or static. My question: Where did the original "matter" come from? When scientists are asked that they either look at you with a blank stare or if honest say "we don't know". I seek beauty and harmony in my images (almost always). In beauty there is truth, and in truth there is often simplicity. Example: E=MC squared! Cheers. Craig
Jim; as you know, I've followed your time series (and other photo-art works) with a great deal of interest. Reading your thoughts and philosophy is just as interesting. Some of your images are of a nature that "stick in my mind". In short, I think of them-- and wonder, and wonder.
I've finally come to the conclusion that to you "space"-- in it's grandest sense, ie the universe-- is represented in many your images by the colors blue or blue/turquoise. You've chosen to deal with the concept(s) of time by using various symbols, figures and composites, but the companion of time is space, and like many you're trying to make personal sense of the Space-Time continuum but in a graphic way-- which is where your expertise lies-- whereas Einstein and his collegues used matethmatics. But we all have to deal with this theme in one way or another. If we're lucky, we'll know in Beyond, but not before. I really liked Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth" PBS TV series as done with Bill Moyers-- in fact I taped it. I liked the companion book too. Cheers. Craig
I ALWAYS appreciate your comments very much. Dialogue is what makes threads so interesting. I obviously got carried away, but I thought this explication might be of interest to the many generous people who have been offering me feedback and encouragement on this series -- and have probably been mystified by it -- such as yourself, Gregory, Craig, Rhonda, Ben, Peta, Anna, Mary, Carol, Mari, Julien, Audrey, Stefan, Biliana, Patti, Adam, Hakan, GC, Kita, Andre, Liz, Lexie, Lisa, Ulf, Kristina, Ursula, Harlan, Yutaka, Harlan, Mario, Tiro, Naty, Alan, Ana, Paolo, Cecilia, Fabio, Maja, Robin, Lissa, Marion, Maciek, Kim, Lowell, Luisa, and many others.
What I love about the arts -- especially, photography -- is the opportunity to create and become lost in the act of creation. Is evolution a random walk or a coherent plan? Heaven only knows. Some days I lean one way, some days I lean the other. Talk about blowing in the wind. My guess is the we don't even begin to have the capacity to understand, to comprehend the complexity of it all. Which certainly makes it all the more interesting to try. --Jim
Hi Julien:
There's a Kodak site that has, if I recall, 25 of Jerry's more recent images. It's . I like his personal site because it also includes a bunch of the early images that I recall from the Dark Ages -- but not only is having the latest Flash a nuisance, you also must set your monitor to 1024 pixels or it won't work even if you do have Flash. But then Jerry's always been cutting edge. And don't worry about proof reading, I get the idea! --Jim
Another great work of photoart! Brilliant as ever! 7's don't seem quite enough ~ though, in Biblical terms, it's the perfect number.
I, too, had to discipline myself to read all the text!! Well they say "a picture paints a thousand words"!! The question is: Do you accept the "accepted view"? That "we live in a finite, expanding universe that began as a singularity about 13 billion years ago." And that "during this cataclysmic moment, all matter, space, and time came into being from one atom-sized cosmic egg." Moreover, that everything that's come about has been the result of blind chance and no organizing mind? If you do, then I applaud you, for you have more faith than I have!!
I don't believe the God ever intended the Bible should give us all the technicalities, the exact 'how' of it all, (after all, it was originally written for people who would have been totally baffled by talk of quantum physics and nuclear science!), but it does profess to tell us 'who', and then proceeds to reveal this One who is above and beyond it all. Then, around 2000 years ago, along comes Someone who claims to perfectly reveal the Ultimate ~ in fact, says they are 'One' ~ an sets about doing all kinds of stuff that seemed to add significant weight to His claim. They could shut Him out, so they hung Him on a cross and sealed Him in a tomb. But, according to those who knew Him best, that far from finished Him off!
He's the "beginning and the end". The One who started everything off and continues to keep it all going. He's the Ultimate picture-maker and story writer! He's the Creator of those mechanisms by which we measure this slippery thing we call 'time' ~ and one day, when the time is right, He's gonna bring this time-bound world as we know to it to and end.
Is there such a person as Jim McNitt? Yes, I believe there is. I've seen evidence that he really exists. In a 21st century kind of a way, we've talked to one another, and I've discovered just a little bit about him. Right now I'd take a bit of convincing that there was no such person. So it with me and God. With me and Christ.
Thanks for reading this! We'll talk again.
Best regards,
Chris.
P.S. I thought about e-mailing you direct with this, but I thought there might just be a chance that someone else might have the time to read my thoughts as well as yours. I hope you don't mind!!
psG: shyte... I've just tried to view Jerry Uelsmann's website but it requires at least Flash in its 6th incarnation and the guys at the library - this is where I stand just right now... - can't do anything about it - they don't even have the right to do anything anyway so... That's just to say something before I go...
Just a few words to tell you that your comments are much appreciated and, also, I wanted to share a few thoughts about clichés and mythologies but I can see that you've read in my mind... Maybe a few things about the surrealists too since they are greatly inspiring your world of dream and fantasy as you always try to join them to the everyday "rational" world in what I suppose could be called an absolute reality - i don't really like the word "rational" but I think it describes really well what's usually going on in the western world - So, let's just forget the technical stuff that matters - did I mention that I quite like magic and mystery ? - and Hmmm... btw, did somebody talk about reading in someone else's mind... Now that would be a major step in humankind's evolution ?! Then... Clichés and ambiguity for sure because reinventing the wheel is not possible everyday but that's with total genuine awareness... to make it short, I plea guilty, so I'll make it up - my mind that is... - again :) and come back here or there to share it !
ps: i haven't got the time, as relative as it may be, to proof-read this so forgive me if it sounds a bit disrupted !
Dear Jim I understand you.Because I'm archaeologist and romantic.So this photo very impressive and perfect.Fine idea.I m really conggggg!Best regards my friend.
I can see how you feel this image represents what goes on in your work and in your head in general :-) I mainly wanted to say thanks for taking the time to share your ruminations, and also the reference to Uelsmann - the images at the website really are inspirational.
Some Thoughts on Time, Evolution, Mythology and Photography
Jerry Uelsmann (www.uelsmann.com), the all-time master of photographic montage, forever changed my thinking about photography. Uelsmann believes that the camera ?is a license to explore.? When a friend loaned me a book of Uelsmann?s photos 30 years ago, the pages seemed to come alive in my hands with the sweet promise of infinite possibility. ?If you can feel it, if you can imagine it, then you can create it,? Uelsmann voice whispered from somewhere within his each of his darkly haunting photographic poems.
If only it were that simple. The distance between inspiration and realization sometimes seems measured in agony, frustration and disappointment. For me, it?s been a long and winding road with far too many detours and dead ends. But finally, I?m creating the kind of images that I envisioned in 1972 when my first business card was printed with the ambiguous title "photographic illustrator." As David Crosby says, "it's been a long time coming.?
Today, most of the images I consider worthwhile undertaking are set in what I've come think of as "poetic space" -- a place which resembles, and yet is often far removed from, conventional photography. It?s a place where the camera is both a license to explore as well as the vehicle for what Rene Magritte believed was the essence of his art, which was "to make thought visible."
My fascination with composite images did not begin with Uelsmann. It began at age four or five when my father taught me to make simple cyanoprints by placing leaves and toy soldiers on blueprint paper, exposing it to the sun and developing the latent image over ammonia fumes. In the late '60s, I pursued composites in the basement darkroom of a sympathetic history professor using Kodalith film to make hand-painted, high-contrast photo composites. My inspiration in those days was Max Ernst, whose paintings drew me to the NY Museum of Modern Art's "Surrealism" exhibit at least a dozen times in 1968.
By the early 70s, I had a darkroom where my self-initiated projects included a series of composites lampooning the '76 presidential candidates, Carter and Ford. With the arrival of Photoshop in early '90s, color composites became possible, if not always practical. Among what I consider to be the more successful experiments from this period are an image called "Manhattan Tribal" which features a pair of naked West African teenagers guiding a fishing pirogue under the Brooklyn Bridge and "She Moaned in Exquisite Pleasure," which is posted in my UF portfolio.
The themes of my current work have also been a "long time coming" and date back, at the very least, to an earth science class in which I was fascinated and perplexed by the then accepted "steady-state" theory of the universe. Down the years I?ve found Newtonian mechanics, quantum theory, evolutionary biology and astrophysics provide explanations of the universe that are at times more mystical than the Upanishads and more bizarre than Ernst, Dali, and de Chirico combined. Which brings me back to "Time's Relative."
In many ways, this is a Rosetta Stone to what?s going on in my images. The grand themes of time, mythology, and evolution all merge here in a poetic space that is quirky, personal and, of course, surreal.
The background is a photo of 2,400 year-old marble tablets that once adorned the Parthenon in Athens -- itself a temple dedicated to the worship of the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, Athena. Enter the notion of mythology -- Egyptian mythology, Babylonian mythology, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Hebrew mythology, Christian mythology, Muslim mythology, Scientific mythology.
For me, mythology is the way we attempt to know the unknowable. Since the 17th century, the prevailing mythology of Western Civilization has been science. My first science book taught that the universe was in a state of equilibrium and was neither expanding nor contracting. An alternate theory, which hypothesized an expanding, finite universe was known derisively as the "The Big Bang." Today, the steady-state universe is consigned to the junk pile of superstition. The accepted view, which has been confirmed by data on microwave radiation gathered by NASA's COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite in 1992, is that we live in a finite, expanding universe that began as a singularity (i.e. "mystical event?) about 13 billion years ago. During this cataclysmic moment, all matter, space, and time came into being from one atom-sized cosmic egg. Is that strange, or what?
There is another important idea that I associate with the Elgin Marbles, this one having to do with perceptions of time. Like almost all other ancient civilizations -- except for the Hebrews, Zorroasters and Christians -- the Greeks perceived time as cyclical, not linear.
Perhaps the most is extreme example of cyclical time is the Mayan calendar (which is included on the neck of the soaring Frigate bird in the UF image "Where the Great Bird Flew, Time Followed"). The Mayans saw history as repeating every 260 years -- which is an incredibly uplifting, or a profoundly depressing thought, depending upon how much fun you've had lately. Linear time is the way most people today perceive the way things happen -- a fixed past with an open-ended, somewhat predictable, although ultimately unknowable future.
While the Eglin Marbles are associated in my mind with the cosmic questions of ?how, where when and why?? the other image in "Time's Relative," the fish with human arms and legs, addresses the question of ?who?? And who is ultimately determined by DNA, genomes, mass extinctions and a myriad of other ideas connected with the evolution of the species, including homo sapiens. Above all, is evolution merely a series of random dice tosses -- a crap shoot -- or is there some organizing force behind the climb from single cell organism to higher life forms?
When I think of evolution, it almost invariably calls to mind the image of a ?food chain.? (In an early version of ?Time?s Relative,? there was a series of fish of different sizes all chasing each other. A cliché I eventually discarded.) If there is an organizing force to life, isn?t it strange that most species must survive on a diet of neighbors and evolutionary ancestors?
Which brings to mind one last form of relativity. Behind Einstein?s equations was a life-long quest to determine if the universe was a fundamentally good, or evil, place. As far as we know, the man conceived of the universe as a place composed of relative space-time never made up his mind. --Jim
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{K:22586} 11/6/2003
