For 2 years in 2011/2012, I lived in Vung Tau, Vietnam, a relatively peaceful coastal town (by Vietnamese city standards) that has a long maritime history. During 14th and 15th centuries, the cape that would become Vũng Tàu was a swamp which European trading ships visited regularly. The ships' activities inspired the name Vũng Tàu, which means "anchorage". The French Indochinese government named it Cap Saint-Jacques ("Cap Xanh Giac", in Vietnamese). The cliff of Vũng Tàu is now called Mũi Nghinh Phong (literally meaning "Cape of breeze welcome" or "Cape of greeting the wind").
Around the bluff from where I stayed where numerous Vietnamese Buddhist Temples, Pagoda, and Monasteries and I would walk these peaceful gardens and annexes, places of Buddha worship and I hatched the idea to create a series of abstract 'tapestry' like murals from 'blocks of photographs' that I took. Details of walls, paths, flowers, steps, stucco, ponds, trees, fallen leaves etc.
The process of creation was rather organic and intuitive. I would start with a large open blank photoshop document. Approx 1m x 1 m. Then process out each photo I had created on location. Cut and paste them into the big 'hero' template. As each image was dropped into the space, I would play with positioning, and just let my judgement and intuition allow the final image to grow holistically.
I have called the series, Pathway to Pureland, an apt name, given there is a sect of Buddhist teachings called, Pure Land Buddhism (Chinese: 淨土宗; pinyin: Jìngtǔzōng; Japanese: 浄土仏教 Jōdo bukkyō; Korean: Korean: 정토종; RR: Jeongto-jong; Vietnamese: Tịnh Độ Tông), also referred to as Amidism in English, and is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism and one of the most widely practiced traditions of Buddhism in East Asia. Pure Land is a tradition of Buddhist teachings that are focused on the Buddha Amitābha.
Around the bluff from where I stayed where numerous Vietnamese Buddhist Temples, Pagoda, and Monasteries and I would walk these peaceful gardens and annexes, places of Buddha worship and I hatched the idea to create a series of abstract 'tapestry' like murals from 'blocks of photographs' that I took. Details of walls, paths, flowers, steps, stucco, ponds, trees, fallen leaves etc.
The process of creation was rather organic and intuitive. I would start with a large open blank photoshop document. Approx 1m x 1 m. Then process out each photo I had created on location. Cut and paste them into the big 'hero' template. As each image was dropped into the space, I would play with positioning, and just let my judgement and intuition allow the final image to grow holistically.
I have called the series, Pathway to Pureland, an apt name, given there is a sect of Buddhist teachings called, Pure Land Buddhism (Chinese: 淨土宗; pinyin: Jìngtǔzōng; Japanese: 浄土仏教 Jōdo bukkyō; Korean: Korean: 정토종; RR: Jeongto-jong; Vietnamese: Tịnh Độ Tông), also referred to as Amidism in English, and is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism and one of the most widely practiced traditions of Buddhism in East Asia. Pure Land is a tradition of Buddhist teachings that are focused on the Buddha Amitābha.
