12 December

Ecstatic Memory: Radioactive Seeds of Imagination

by Jon Katz
Ecstatic Memory

Environmental psychologist Louise Chawla has written extensively about childhood, nature, and ecstatic memory – the impact nature and animals have on people who pursue a creative or artistic life. Interviewing writers, poets and artists, she found that many recalled solitary encounters with nature – a favorite beach, a fishing spot, a park or beloved woods – as igniting a creative spark in them. These encounters with the natural world, Chawla found, constituted multiple dimensions of freedom and imagination. Freedom, she wrote, was evident both as a physical fact and as a state of mind.

The very environment in which children moved offered freedom in the sense of potentiality – an opennes to exploration and discovery in a place that “beckoned enthrallingly.” In most cases, this ecstatic quality belonged to the environment – gardens, the seashore, a lake, prairie land, forests and fields. Often, it was an open space that the child could move through safely and willingly, as in the writer and poet Howard Thurman, who told of the woods that befriended him.”I tended to wander away to be alone for a time for in that way I could sense the strength of the quiet and the aliveness of the woods.”

I’ve seen interview after interview with artists, writers and poets who spoke of an ecstatic experience in nature when they were young, a place that opened them up to the potential of their own work and lives. Mary Oliver’s work is suffused with ecstatic memory. For me, ecstatic experience has become an important part of my life, although I came to it later. I remember loving a sprawling cemetery in Providence, R.I., vanishing into its enclosures, quiet rows and paths. The cemetery was my friend, it was not haunting but peaceful, not disturbing but reassuring, a safe place where even the cruelest of boys would not go.

Now, ecstatic experience is different. A walk in the woods. Herding with Red. Feeding the animals. Doing chores with Maria. Photographing light. Swimming in the natural world. For sure, these experiences are radioactive seeds of the imagination, to grow and blossom in the consciousness again and again.

12 December

Photographing Animals: Legend Of Zelda

by Jon Katz
Photographing Animals

Zelda has knocked me down at least a half a dozen times, Red two or three. She has led three breakouts, refused to wear a coat to protect her wool from dirt and hay and knocked over various cans, buckets and feeders in her made dashes to escape Red. Things are quieting, and I have been working on Zelda for weeks to get her comfortable with my camera.

Here’s how I do it. I try and make the animals associate the camera with food. When I put hay in the feeder, I show them the camera, put it down near them while they are eating. I get a bit closer each time, so that when they see the camera, they head for the feeder. I put it on multiple-shot settings so they can get use to the shutter clicking.

I use a fast lens, in this case a 100 mm macro. I always go for the eyes. The key to photographing animals is the eyes, and to do that you need a fast and big lens. I often put the camera down on the floor while the dogs are eating, so they always look at the camera when I point it at them.

This is the closest Zelda has permitted me to go. We are working things out.

12 December

Bookkeeper And Wife

by Jon Katz
My Life

Okay, I’m not really sure what to say about this, other than to just say what happened. I walked out of the farmhouse and saw these two creatures, a raccoon and a cat and they were wandering around the yard and laughing, and I was surprised and rushed to grab the camera. I could see the hair on Red’s back going straight up and Frieda was having a nervous breakdown back in the yard. I recognized the raccoon as Anne Dambrowski, our bookkeeper and friend, and the cat was my wife and former girlfriend. They both were dancing around and saying something about a Christmas parade, and I took them at their world. I had to put the picture up though, I just had to.

12 December

Good Morning From A Barn Cat

by Jon Katz
Good Morning From A Barn Cat

Life on a farm, like life anywhere else, is made up of moments, and a life with animals is also defined by moments. Every morning, Maria and I set out to do our barn chores. We are not farmers, we are creative people, and we do not have the grueling, day-long workloads of people who make their living farming. Our chores take minutes, not hours. But they are always rich in moments. As we finish filling the water buckets and distributing the hay, Minnie the barn cat always appears to say good morning to me or Maria. It is a surprise to us to learn again and again that animals – dogs, cats, donkeys, cats, sheep – need nourishment beyond food. They all need and welcome and seek some attention. Our good morning to the barn cat is one of the moments of life.

Minnie needs to say good morning.

Email SignupFree Email Signup