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Global Multimedia and Multidisciplinary Cultural Organization Empowering and Inspiring Minds to Promote Social Change and Raise Consciousness
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𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐈 - 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐀 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍

This project by Manyatsa Monyamane seeks to emphasise the erasure of black bodies, specifically black women’s bodies, in modern history, while also looking to highlight that we are not in an age where women of colour are able to start sculpting their own narratives, voices and images.

When a confident black woman struts through a space, her presence is announced by the energy she exudes. Her gait, attire, and sheer elegance precede her, forming unshakeable, roaring opinions in the minds of those looking on. Such women would have a certain phrase associated with their characters. In the African culture you may hear someone utter “Mme o, ona le serithi” which loosely translates to “This woman has a powerful aura”. She jolts you from your sense of comfort and compels you to lean forward and take notice of her.

This project seeks to emphasise the erasure of black bodies, specifically black women’s bodies, in modern history, while also looking to highlight that we are not in an age where women of colour are able to start sculpting their own narratives, voices and images; that women of colour have never been encouraged to embrace their beings as freely as should have been the case; and that as a result, a hyper-sexual society discourages the full expression of womanhood, particularly in the case of women of colour.

Each woman who contributes to this series brings forth a different personality whilst maintaining a true sense of self. This series showcases the multiplicity of characteristics that make each woman intensely unique in terms of her aptitude to embrace everything that comes with being a black woman. - PHmuseum @phmuseum

Photographer 📸 Manyatsa Monyamane

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐒

Undercover Kenya Wildlife Services Ranger detusk a bull elephant killed by a spear in the Amboseli ecosystem in the shadow of Amboseli, Kenya, May 29, 2011. The elephant was killed by a single spear stroke close to the spine which penetrated deeply enough to cause massive internal bleeding. It is not known whether this was a poaching attempt or whether this was a case of human elephant conflict with the animal in the crops of local Masaai. The animal was detusked and the ivory sent to the KWS HQ in Amboseli National Park.

KWS has the mandate to protect wildlife in Kenya but lack the manpower and resources. Organisations like Big Life are the private sector arm of KWS in the 2 million acre Amboseli ecosystem, working alongside them to supply manpower, vehicles, funding, information networks and aircraft to practise effective conservation in the region.

This post includes images of some of the last of the great Elephant tuskers in Africa, taken in Tsavo Eastm 18 May, 2011. Massive elephant poaching in recent years has seen most of the mature bull elephant population of African countries decimated for their ivory. A Tusker is defined as an elephant with a set of 100 pound ivory tusks, or therabouts. This depletion of the elephant gene pool is having a negative effect on populations, with weak dna being passed on instead of the strongest.

In one of the photographs, ICCN Rangers investigate the corpse of a recently killed sub-adult male elephant in Lulimbi, Eastern DRC, February 29, 2012. The elephant has obviously been killed for its ivory, a trend on the rise across the DRC and one which makes the Rangers job very difficult.

In another image, we witness the largest mass killing of elephants in recent history took place at Bouba Ndjida National Park in North Cameroon close to the Chad and Central African Republic Borders from January through March 2012. Eye witnesses have so far located 340 carcasses, the ivory poachers themselves told local villagers they have killed over 650 elephants in their hunt for Ivory over the 500000 hectare region. - Brent Stirton @brentstirton

Photographer 📸 Brent Stirton for @natgeo

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐌

That’s me in the middle. The year I launched Liberatum. I was seventeen. Had just dropped out of school. Had no money. The year 2000. But I suppose you could say that I possessed plenty of belief and drive. I wasn’t afraid to be who I felt inside. In this photo, celebrating life with the French Ambassador and the High Commissioner of Fiji.

They were both supportive of my mission and dreams. I am so grateful to them for encouraging me back then with words of wisdom. I didn’t want to hide who I was. A queer, proud, powerful, strong and determined queen. I’m thirty six now and my mind during these quarantine days have been full of big ideas and dreams to find ways to create purposeful opportunities around the world to help communities and touch lives, and also shine a light on the stories of the most vulnerable. Building new initiatives.

Liberatum is a brown and queer owned company promoting equality, diversity and human rights around the world through its programmes and platform. Not afraid to speak our mind. Have always been real and don’t intend to change that anytime soon. Love, Pablo Ganguli 💙🕊

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐌

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘'𝐒 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

In Afghanistan you seldom see an unaccompanied woman. Noor Nisa, about 18, was pregnant; her water had just broken. Her husband, whose first wife had died during childbirth, was determined to get Noor Nisa to the hospital in Faizabad, a four-hour drive from their village in Badakhshan Province. - Lynsey Addario

Sometimes National Geographic photographers do more than take images—they also help.

In Afghanistan on a story about maternal mortality, Lynsey Addario came across these two women on the road. Photographing them against a stark background, Addario was struck that they were out alone.

It turns out one was in labour.

“We offered to take them to the hospital, but they said they needed the husband's permission," Addario told my colleague David Beard. Addario and her guide went, got the husband's permission, returned, then drove the woman to a hospital, where the baby was delivered.

It was a happy counterpoint to a grim assignment. “So many women,” Addario said, “die in Afghanistan because they have no access” to medical attention. - Whitney Johnson @natgeo

Photographer 📸 Lynsey Addario @lynseyaddario

𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐒𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃?

The question I would like to pose is not, Why are we repressed? but rather, Why do we say, with so much passion and so much resentment... that we are repressed? By what spiral did we come to affirm that sex is negated? What led us to show, ostentatiously, that sex is something we hide, to say it is something we silence?

...I do not maintain that prohibition of sex is a ruse; but it is a ruse to make prohibition into the basic and constitutive element from which one would be able to write the history of what has been said concerning sex starting from the modern epoch.

A policing of sex: that is, not the rigor of a taboo, but the necessity of regulating sex through useful and public discourses. A few examples will suffice. One of the great innovations in the techniques of power in the eighteenth century was the emergence of “population” as an economic and political problem: population as wealth, population as manpower or labor capacity, population balanced between its own growth and the resources it commanded.

Governments perceived that they were not dealing simply with subjects, or even with a “people,” but with a “population,” with its specific phenomena and its peculiar variables: birth and death rates, life expectancy, fertility, state of health, frequency of illnesses, patterns of diet and habitation. - Michel Foucault

Photographer 📸 Sophie Kietzmann @sophiekietzmann 👧🏽 @djouliet

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐆𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

January 7th, 2020, I was diagnosed with HIV. Only a handful of chosen family knew up until now. I'm on Biktarvy, taken once a day to suppress the virus. Soon I'll be undetectable. Discovery is one of the driving forces behind the work. Drawing from moments of love, intimacy and kinship, I use my body in the home and the landscape to reconcile with our history. In the images, I aim to puncture the realm of self-awareness, creating a space where the spirits of Black bodies can live freely in their encounters with one another. My father and my mama's mama, both reborn and never to sin again, provoke a renewed existence. The earth engulfs me as I pull the love of my life into the unknown. Confident, tender hands cradle the flesh of loved ones, immediate family, and the self, embodying gestures of both defiance and care. The demanding scenes mimic portals, delivering us to the parts of our own history that still linger in the every day.

My work is about desire. I’m challenging the systemic placement in society and the framing of the Black male body by using my own. I photograph myself because I am not thin or white and my lived experience is not a heterosexual one. Black men, other than myself, appear throughout the work as sitters, lovers, helpers, or even shadows. Themes and issues of race, class, sexuality, gender, love, and intimacy fuel my image making. My images speak to my audience through performance, gaze, experience, imagination, power, and vulnerability. Masculinity, femininity, and sexuality are all performances. Being in control of how I show myself gives me power over my own body. It is a tool I use to empower and resist.

To make history I have the privilege to create, inspire, and challenge the world we live in. Agitating comfortability and implementing notions and nuances of Black and queer perspectives is one of my goals. I critique the, predominantly, straight history of art and the systemic oppression of Black bodies. I want to continue to share my work on various platforms and social levels to reveal and control the narrative. - D'Angelo Lovell Williams

📸 @dangelolovellwilliams

𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐌

𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐈𝐒𝐌

For me, Robert Mapplethorpe's racism was the toughest aspect of his personality. Where did it come from? Certainly growing up in the US in the 50s would have given him plenty of exposure to it. He found the n word sexually stimulating, and used it liberally in relation to his lovers and models. It was as if he didn’t see them as people but as objects – something that’s obvious in his photographs. I can’t look at the pictures without reflecting on the backstory, which is not a pretty one. Milton Moore (Man in Polyester Suit) was perhaps the great love of his life, but he considered him a “primitive.” Moore once said, “I think he saw me like a monkey in a zoo.” - Patricia Morrisroe, Mapplethorpe biographer .

The perfection sought by Mapplethorpe was inherently a sadistic enterprise. This motivation mixed with the race of his models culminated in an almost anthropological obsession with black male genitals. Elevating beauty is less the goal than displaying the sexual differences between races. Scientific racism is never far from sexual racism, and photography has at times been a dark art in service to both. .

No image speaks to this point about objectification better than one of Mapplethorpe’s most famous and certainly most infamous images: Man in Polyester Suit. The model was Milton Moore, wearing a tight suit with his long black uncircumcised penis dangling out the zipper like an elephant’s trunk. His face is not in the frame, so we only see his body in fragments. .

Writer Edmund White, in defense of Mapplethorpe, argues that many of his models, including Moore, were in fact his lovers, and Moore in particular requested that his face and penis not appear in the same image. However, having sex with black men does not exclude a white man from racism, and in the case of Mapplethorpe, black men were not only a fetish but racism itself. - Charles Stephens

𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐀𝐃

𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐀𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐒, 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐆𝐄?

For the work I’ve made since 2012 I spent intimate time photographing older men in New York City to learn how to seduce, to age gracefully, to learn about the past. The impact of the education I received in matters of art, lust, and aging, outweighed anything I’ve experienced before or since and has characterized much of my adult life. It may have been photography that I meant to inspect but what I found was an essence of human connectivity that extends beyond just sex and lust. I met men in their homes. We had tea, shed tears, shared orgasms and intimate details.

I wanted to make emotionally vulnerable portraits and intimate scenes of older men. I think most older men cut themselves off from emotional intimacy, especially when it comes to their relationships with themselves. I wanted to show a soft side of older men in the hope it might inspire a more comprehensive overhaul of what being "male" can mean. As well, in many ways I started making this work for my grandfather, who was learning to face his own mortality at age 75 when his mother died in 2010 at age 95. It is a difficult thing to face — aging, death, and the late stages of life so intimately. I believe it's important that more people consider this perspective more seriously.

I learned that I am also implicated, or rather, "Complicit," in many of the things I sought to negate and "fix" by making these photographs. That I too struggled to view the older male body as appealing and not difficult to look at. I spent a lot of time with these people and I realized that real relationships, emotional vulnerability takes a great deal of effort and work. There is no easy way to make something that is true and real and finding that courage, strength and sincerity in yourself is earned through hard work and dedication. Being well regarded within your chosen profession is never a birthright and more people, especially men, need to know that. - Matthew Morrocco @matthew_morrocco

Photographer 📸 Matthew Morrocco @matthew_morrocco

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐄𝐅

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐀

Patriarchy as a social system acts as an agent for men and the masculine gender. It provides a package of male entitlements and a sense of privilege. Exercising of these entitlements gives men a sense of overconfidence which develops into a behaviour marked by audacity, oppression, and dominance.

Patriarchy engenders false consciousness in all the sexes and genders. For women, it internalises notions of desirable beauty standards, sense of being weak and helpless and thus a need for dependence on men for all kinds of support. Interestingly, patriarchy like many other social systems has antagonistic characters inherent in it. As patriarchy unfolds, the principal beneficiary of this social system, that is, the men themselves get affected by these contradictions in multiple ways. The glut of male entitlements provided by patriarchy develops a pernicious false consciousness among men and the upholders of hyper-masculinity. It provides them with a sense of unassailability which eventually develops into an exaggerated sense of invincibility among men. This can be easily gauged from the careless attitude of society towards mental health and physical safety of men, primarily that of boys.

Concerns about of men, particularly boys, are barely seen among parents in general and in individuals in particular. Immediate guardians/ parents of boys are generally unperturbed when it comes to sending them to neighbourhood or with relatives/ friends/ strangers. Not just guardians, even boys as individuals, are hardly concerned about their safety. We, as boys, may prefer to pass through the shadiest of the streets, or hang out with the strangers without getting flickered by the threats to our safety

If any person deviates from opting such notions, they are called ‘girl-like’, ‘coward’ or ‘unfitting to be a man’. And this is where the false consciousness of unassailability amongst men makes them ignore their vulnerability to sexual/physical abuse. - Feminism in India @feminisminindia

Photographer 📸 Roshani Shah @roshagulla

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐎𝐓𝐘𝐏𝐄𝐒 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐌

The exhibited narratives in my work intend to challenge stereotypes that were constructed during colonialism and still exist in these post-colonial times, which causes both cultural and racial bias. In my photography, I seek to offer pride, solace and resilience of bodies. It is first portrayed through a black body as this is the body that I own and know through my social, political experience. Additionally, this body is placed in different societal contexts that still deal with discrimination and a dependence on Eurocentrism. The storytelling offers many perspectives and it gives one the freedom to be politically and economically critical to the current situation in the world.

Blackness is in me and many stories start with what I have learned from the past few years as an artist working in Angola. Through photography I have been speaking to people that probably would not have accepted the conversation as I’m an artist and not a politician. The power to confront without asking for permission empowers the artist and it creates opportunities for different social groups to debate. My art does not wait for its receiver to give permission but rather exists to evoke emotions in visual storytelling. Only an artist can look into the future and almost touch the reality that is about to reveal [itself]. Subjects attached to pain, depression and trauma are often very difficult conversations to start with in the black community. Through images, we offer a visualisation in its romantic form which makes it easier for the viewer to start discussing their own beliefs and fear.

- Lola Keyezua

Writer and curator Jareh Das talks with photographer Lola Keyezua about the intricacies of producing art that tackles disability, loss and womanhood. To read the full interview, please visit People’s Stories Project website psp-culture.com

Photographer 📸 Keyezua @keyezua

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐎

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓 𝐈𝐍 𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃

The highly sensitive [introverted] tend to be philosophical or spiritual in their orientation, rather than materialistic or hedonistic. They dislike small talk. They often describe themselves as creative or intuitive. They dream vividly, and can often recall their dreams the next day. They love music, nature, art, physical beauty. They feel exceptionally strong emotions--sometimes acute bouts of joy, but also sorrow, melancholy, and fear. Highly sensitive people also process information about their environments--both physical and emotional--unusually deeply. They tend to notice subtleties that others miss--another person's shift in mood, say, or a lightbulb burning a touch too brightly.

Introversion- along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness- is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. Introverts living in the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man's world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.

Whoever you are, bear in mind that appearance is not reality. Some people act like extroverts, but the effort costs them energy, authenticity, and even physical health. Others seem aloof or self-contained, but their inner landscapes are rich and full of drama. So the next time you see a person with a composed face and a soft voice, remember that inside her mind she might be solving an equation, composing a sonnet, designing a hat. She might, that is, be deploying the powers of quiet.
- Susan Cain

Artist 🎨 @calidagarciarawles

𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎

𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘

We are the embodiment of a new history— a history renewed by reclamation and documentation. We are history. By being, we manifest the impossible.

The blueprint left before us by those we honor charts a path of internal struggle. But through the energy of our ancestors and the promise of liberation, we shape-shift into truth, declare through glamour, and cultivate collective power. We create history today as we make mistakes, unlearn and relearn, grow outward, reach inward, love wholly, and stand in our power.

We bear the torch for those who will come after us, from those who came before us. We fuel ourselves to feed others. We are seeds planted in rich soil, growing in the cupped palms of ancestors, spirits, survivors, lovers, and friends.

Imagine a power that is Black and queer. Imagine a power that is communal. Imagine a power that nurtures beauty and knowledge. This is the power we create today. - Camila Falquez @camilafalquez

To read the full manifesto and learn about ‘Being in History’ please visit beinginhistory.com

Photographer 📸 @camilafalquez

This Project was produced and shot by Camila Falquez. The hair of photos was done by Artist Evanie Frausto, and Make-up by Laramie Glenn, Michaela Bosh, Mical klip and Agus Suga. The writing on the Being in History website was done by Anisa Tavangar. The pasting of the photos was done with the help of Joshua Geyer. And the prints will be printed with the collaboration of picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom @evaniefrausto @michaelabosch @agussuga_mua @laramiemakeup @_artie_mis_ @zacharytyerichardson @jeffhova @joshuaobawole @alokvmenon @fatfemme

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐎𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐔

The series Virgenes de la Puerta focuses on the transgender women of Lima, Peru who continue to be cast aside by the political and religious administrations for well over 500 years. They are consistently denied employment, assistance from government programs, both state and government-issued forms of identification, and are granted limited access to basic medical resources. They live burdened under the hostile atmosphere created by the agenda of the Church and the politicians who rule the patriarchy with antiquated concepts of masculinity and machismo.

We honor the diversity of the Peruvian culture by re-incorporating these transgender women into the cultural landscape and history of Peru. In direct contrast to their oppressor’s intentions, the work celebrates trans women of color by presenting them as relevant iconic figures within the context of their native land. Influenced by 19th-Century Colonial painting, this series of portraits and tableaux incorporate cultural and religious iconography in an effort to pay homage to the resilience and beauty of these women to strengthen, empower, and embed a sense of pride within the current and future generations of Peru’s LGBTQ community.

- Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo and Andrew Mroczek

Photographers 📸 Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo and Andrew Mroczek

𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐔𝐈𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐕𝐔𝐋𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose; the level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection.

When we stop caring about what people think, we lose our capacity for connection. When we become defined by what people think, we lose our willingness to be vulnerable. If we dismiss all the criticism, we lose out on important feedback, but if we subject ourselves to the hatefulness, our spirits gets crushed. It's a tightrope, shame resilience is the balance bar, and the safety net below is the one or two people in our lives who can help us reality-check the criticism and cynicism.

I define vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. With that definition in mind, let's think about love. Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can't ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment's notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow- that's vulnerability. Love is uncertain. It's incredibly risky. And loving someone leaves us emotionally exposed. Yes, it's scary, and yes, we're open to being hurt, but can you imagine your life without loving or being loved?
- Brené Brown @brenebrown

📸 @kotobolofo @edmaximus

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐁𝐄

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐑

Although armpit hair is a natural state it has become a statement. Why is that? For almost a century we have been encouraged by the beauty industry to remove female armpit hair. The aim of 'Natural Beauty' is to create a contrast between common fashionable female beauty and the raw unconventional look of female armpit hair. By doing so, new thoughts are intrigued in contribution to the world's vision of femininity, self-love and acceptance.

The project sparked a global discussion after going viral several times since its release in 2014. It reached tens of millions and encouraged a cultural trend of women letting their armpit hair grow. - Ben Hopper @benhopper

“I felt like I was back in control of my body without having realized I’d lost control.” – Amanda Palmer

“Being so close to nature let me dive deeper into and re-examine the relationship with myself and the world, acting as a mirror. In nature, there is wild; it is as beautiful as it is untamed. How could it be anything other than that? I felt so relieved and free when I let it grow out. It felt like being able to breathe. It was incredibly comfortable too. I felt a confidence and boldness returning, like I was replenishing some kind of primal power. Isn’t it ridiculous and ironic that what grows naturally on its own is seen as unnatural? How did we get here?” – Kyotocat

“…Your body is beautiful, you don’t need to burn it with lasers” – Maya Felix

Photographer 📸 @benhopper 👩🏾👩🏻👩🏼👩🏽 @mushka.mizu @kyotocatnip @thechroniciconic @louiseraines @msmayafelix @cassiachloe

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

The power of visualization works hand in hand with the Law of Attraction. The idea is to visualize an image in your head; by consistent visualization of this image, it will be attracted to you.

You already do this, probably without realizing you do it! Whenever you focus on what might go wrong, things will go wrong and serve to reinforce a tendency to focus on what might go wrong… because it has, in the past, over and over!

But you can also take that immense creative power and use it for your benefit.

By keeping the idea of what you want on your mind, you will be more likely to do what it takes to make that dream a reality. You will also be more attuned to opportunities and the right people when you give your mind a powerful visual command.

What makes visualization so powerful?

How can using visualization to create your reality possibly happen?

You may have heard people say, “I can’t imagine (riding a 100 miles on my bike, performing on stage, painting a mural, etc. etc.). They are never, ever going to achieve these things because they are not capable of imagining themselves achieving them.

Everything that was ever created or achieved first started as an idea in someone’s mind. Usually in response to some need or some desire, an idea took hold and the person began focusing mental energy on it. The idea built on itself as the mental energy became infused with emotions. This created a massive desire and the person’s mind went into overdrive looking for ways to marry the vision with physical reality.

Ideas of “how” and “when” were generated based on that initial visualization… and this snowballed until… the chair you’re sitting on was designed built; the keyboard on your computer was designed and built; the music on your iPod was written, rehearsed and recorded; your favorite perfume or cologne was crafted…

Every idea you put on paper or read contains a mental image that is a composite of pictures, feelings, imagined sensory experiences, etc. In fact, your mind is creating images right now based on what you are reading here. Right now, you are visualizing! - MINDVALLEY @mindvalley 📸 @indg0

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐆

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐈𝐅𝐓

One of the greatest gifts we can offer people is to embody nonattachment and nonfear. This is a true teaching, more precious than money or material resources. Many of us are very afraid, and this fear distorts our lives and makes us unhappy. We cling to objects and to people like a drowning person clings to a floating log. .

Practicing to realize nondiscrimination, to see the interconnectedness and impermanence of all things, and to share this wisdom with others, we are giving the gift of nonfear. Everything is impermanent. This moment passes. That person walks away. Happiness is still possible.
- Thích Nhất Hạnh 📸 @profvhb

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐌 𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄

We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honor the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.

Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.

Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed and rare.

Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.

Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame. - Brené Brown

Photographer 📸 Sugar McD @shooglet

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘

But the very question of whether photography is or is not an art is essentially a misleading one. Although photography generates works that can be called art --it requires subjectivity, it can lie, it gives aesthetic pleasure-- photography is not, to begin with, an art form at all. Like language, it is a medium in which works of art (among other things) are made.

Out of language, one can make scientific discourse, bureaucratic memoranda, love letters, grocery lists, and Balzac's Paris. Out of photography, one can make passport pictures, weather photographs, pornographic pictures, X-rays, wedding pictures, and Atget's Paris. Photography is not an art like, say, painting and poetry. Although the activities of some photographers conform to the traditional notion of a fine art, the activity of exceptionally talented individuals producing discrete objects that have value in themselves, form the beginning photography has also lent itself to that notion of art which says that art is obsolete.

The power of photography --and its centrality in present aesthetic concerns-- is that it confirms both ideas of art. But the way in which photography renders art obsolete is, in the long run, stronger.
― Susan Sontag

Photographer 📸 Ed Freeman @edfreemanphoto

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐒

Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.

Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!

Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don't care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.

Other people have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.
I alone drift about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

Other people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Other people are sharp;
I alone am dull.
Other people have purpose;
I alone don't know.
I drift like a wave on the ocean,
I blow as aimless as the wind.

I am different from ordinary people.
I drink from the Great Mother's breasts.

- Lao-Tzu

📸 @poesiacomelos @pfacco

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