Counterpart Photography - An extension of Mandala Photography

I just recently coined the term "counterpart photography" as a way to describe the style I have been exploring since around 1985.  Before calling it counterpart photography, I have been calling it Rorschach Photography or Mandala Photography.

The mandala was always appealing - mandala being the Sanskrit word for "circle" and has been a form of sacred art for many centuries.  The mandala is made up of concentric diagrams that have both spiritual and ritualistic significance.

I always liked the idea of taking profane, non-spiritual, and temporal images and turning them into images which could be used to induce meditation and/or the contemplation of worlds beyond the temporal, beyond the mundane.  For many years my favorite objects for the mandala photography was Mexican carnival equipment.  If you have ever experienced Mexican carnivals and circuses you will know what I mean by profane.

So, I would take a roll of 35 mm film and ask my developing service to print two of each negative - then to turn the negative over, and print two more.  I would then glue these into mandalas.  Now with digital cameras and digital photographic manipulation software, it is so easy.

I will put up a few of my latest counterpart photos from the Leichty farm in Nebraska.

I just love the new worlds of texture, composition, pattern, geometry, structure and hidden values that seem to come into focus when multiplied - or when you reveal their counterparts.

And then, many of the photos I use can stand on their own as worlds within worlds. . .

Of course, one of my favorites. . .

 

More later