Hoboken: Venture into a Landscape without Expectations

On Wednesday (9.15.10) I wrote: My exercise for myself this week is to find some darkness--an absence and reclaim my voice; to be truthful, and to stand against the certainty that is likely to doom us.  

Although I was writing both about education and art, I found myself waking early on Saturday morning and venturing out without a destination in mind.  I ended up in Hoboken, New Jersey.  Crossing over the bridge, I immediately felt that connection that Minor White proposed in his Zen exercise:

Venture into a landscape without expectations. Let your subject find you. When you approach it, you will feel resonance, a sense of recognition. If, when you move away, the resonance fades, or it gets stronger as you approach, you'll know you have found your subject. Sit with your subject and wait for your presence to be acknowledged. Don't try to make a photograph, but let your intuition indicate the right moment to release the shutter. If, after you've made an exposure, you feel a sense of completion, bow and let go of the subject and your connection to it. Otherwise, continue photographing until you feel the process is complete.

4 images from Hoboken.

I Will Walk and I Will Pray. Image by M.A. Reilly (9.18.10)

Hoboken I. Image by M.A. Reilly (9.18.10)

Waiting Room. Image by M.A. Reilly (9.18.10)

 

Hoboken II. Image by M.A. Reilly (9.18.10)