Meditation Mystery By: Jerry Uelsmann Presentation by: Matthew Duston

Jerry Uelsmann Background Photographer Jerry Uelsmann is considered a pioneer in the art of multilayered imagery, which he uses to create surreal landscapes which weave together images of trees, rocks, water, and people in new and unexpected ways. These black and white photos are meant by Uelsmann to allow the view to, “transcend the frames and take them on a journey through the unfathomable”. He believes that his work, “touches the viewer on a personal level and communicates his emotion better through the unimaginable settings that he creates”.

Character: ●In the photo, Uelsmann emphasizes on the insignificance of the solitary seagull to the vast scene around it, and focuses on its struggle to overcome this vastness and reach the light above it. This symbolizes a person’s journey through life, and how one must face challenges to reach their goal, and avoid destruction.

Color: ●Uelsmann used greyscale for this photograph to emphasize how at times in life, things are clearly good or evil, while at other times the colors are combined and become gray. These gray areas show how, in life, occurrences are not always a clear good or bad, and how you react to those grey areas reveals what kind of a person your are.

Light: ●Uelsmann uses light and darkness to differentiate between the challenges one faces in their life, and their perfect goal they try to achieve. ●Near the top of the photograph is a view of light, and goodness that the seagull is flying towards. This represents the perfect dream that everyone strives for in their life. ●This place of goodness and peace is obstructed, however, by dark clouds which reside all around it, representing the challenges one faces on the way to that perfect goal of theirs. ●Near the bottom of the photograph, in a calm spot of the ocean, there is a hole that is devoid of light, the ladder descending down into it shows how easy that path seems, however, the darkness in the hole shows that all it will lead to is despair and misfortune.

Angle: ●Uelsmann’s angle is from slightly above the ground, so that the viewer is looking down at the landscape, giving the audience a sense that they are viewing this as if in a dream.

Placement: ●The dark hole and the bright spot of light in the clouds are both in the center of the photograph, emphasizing how the two goals of darkness and good are the only 2 goals that one can really strive to achieve in life. However, the bright light is higher than the dark hole, showing how it is ultimately superior in the end for those who reach it. ●The seagull is off-center, showing how no one is perfect in their life, and often stray from the two different goals that they must eventually try to achieve. ●There is a ladder emerging from the dark hole in the bottom of the photograph, which shows the spreading darkness, and how the path of darkness is much easier to take.

Proportion: ●Uelsmann makes the seagull much smaller than the landscape around it, emphasizing how each day is only one small part of the journey that will decide one's path in life. ●Uelsmann also makes the bright hole in the clouds and the dark hole in the water the same size, showing that one is not more powerful than the other, and each one has equal power to affect one’s life, but how the only difference is that one is good and will lead to happiness, while the other leads to destruction.

Setting: ●Uelsmann portrays the landscape as almost infinite, as there is no apparent end to the water in sight. This shows how one’s journey through life is long and treacherous, and some never find their way to their goal, and get lost in that vastness. ●The light hole in the clouds and the dark hole in the ocean show how there are two possible paths for one to take in life, and the goal that they choose to try to achieve reveals what kind of person they are, and what their fate will eventually be.

Uelsmann’s message Uelsmann reveals to the audience the journey they must make in life, and gives them the insight on the dreams and goals that they will strive to. He shows them the two different goals they could achieve, the way of darkness, which he emphasizes looks like the easy way to reach one’s goal, but only leads to despair, and the way of goodness and light, which has many challenges on the way, but represents one’s perfect dream. He also emphasizes that not everyone will reach these goals, as many will get lost in the immenseness of life. His overall goal is to convince people to avoid the easy way to darkness and inevitable destruction, and to try to reach that goodness by going through those challenges to reach the real rewards that await.

CCLAPS Character: In the photograph, the seagull is flying through the desolate landscape away from the darkness of the hole below, and towards the light above. This represents one’s life, and the choices one faces through it. The seagull is seen flying away from the dark hole in the ocean, and is flying towards the bright hole in the clouds, revealing the goal of all of us in life to avoid the darkness and despair, and pursue the light, and our own, perfect dreams. However, we face challenges on our way to those dreams, just as the seagull faces the stormy clouds in its way to the light, whereas the path to darkness is more calm, tempting one to go the easy way, which will only lead to darkness and doom. The seagull is also solitary, which shows how we often have to make the most important decisions in our life by ourselves. Color: Uelsmann made this photo black and white to explain what we view as good or bad in our lives. Some of the obstacles encountered are clearly good, like the bright hole in the clouds, while others are clearly bad, such as the hole filled with darkness in the ocean. However, there are many clouds and obstacles which are grey, which shows how not everything is clearly good or bad and most things in life are a mixture of the two. Light: Uelsmann uses light in this photograph to differentiate between good, pure things that lead to happiness, versus challenges and darkness, which will only lead to depression and despair. Near the top of the photograph lifes a bright hole in the clouds, which symbolizes happiness, and the perfect dream that everyone strives to achieve in their life, as shown with the seagull flying towards that light. However, the photographer emphasizes that this is not an easy goal to achieve, as around that hole full of light and beauty, there are many dark, brooding clouds, which symbolize the multitude of challenges one faces on their way to their dream, just as the seagull must go through those clouds to reach that place of light. Then, near the bottom of the photograph is a hole which appears calm all around it, and even has a ladder coming out of it to emphasize the ease at which one can take that path. However, the hole is filled with darkness, showing how it will only lead to death and despair. This reveals how what seems like the easy path is often the one which will lead to destruction in life, as the photographer encourages the audience not to take the easy path, but to pursue what is morally right to reach happiness.

Angle: The angle of the photograph is taken from slightly above the ground, as to give the audience both a head on and downwards view of the scene, as well as to give an ethereal effect of floating in the air, looking down on the scene as if it is in a dream. This shows that this we are looking at this from an observer's point of view, who cannot affect the scene going on, revealing how others most often cannot make others important life decisions for them, as they have to make their own choice on what kind of a person they want to become, and which goal to pursue, the one of happiness and light, or the one of destruction and despair. Placement: The dark hole in the water and the bright spot of light in the clouds are both in the same position in the center of the photo, emphasizing how there are only two possible goals one can strive to achieve in life. However, as the bright spot is higher up than the hole filled with darkness, it reveals how it is ultimately superior than the darkness, as the light represents the perfect dream of a person, whereas the darkness, although it may seem advantageous in the short term, all it will lead to in the end is darkness and destruction. Meanwhile, the seagull is off-center, showing how no one is perfect in their life, and revealing how they often stray from the two goals which they must eventually decide between. There is also a ladder emerging from the dark hole in the bottom, emphasizing the ease with which one can travel that path, however, the darkness of both the ladder and the hole that it emerges from shows that the path will just lead to despair and destruction in the end. Proportion: The seagull is much smaller than the landscape surrounding it, emphasizing how insignificant each day of one’s life is, but how it will eventually all matter, and how that person will eventually have to decide between the path leading to darkness, or the way of goodness to the light. Uelsmann also makes both the hole filled with darkness and the bright spot of light the same size, hinting that they both have equal power, and can equally greatly change a person’s life, the only difference being how, as the path of darkness may appear the better option at first, but eventually lead to destruction, while the path of goodness will eventually lead to one’s ideal dream, as long as they can surmount the challenges in their way, which many people never achieve.

Setting: Uelsmann portrays the surroundings as almost infinite, with no apparent end to the water in sight. This shows how each day is only a small part of the journey of life, but the decision made each day can determine what goal you eventually pursue. It also reveals how the journey is long and treacherous, and how it is very easy to lose yourself in that immensity, and begin to believe each day doesn’t matter, which will eventually lead to the path of darkness, as it is much easier for the seagull to fall to the hole of darkness if it does not remain vigilant. The opposing light and dark holes in the landscape show how there are two possible paths for someone to take in life, and how which one they choose, the easy way leading to darkness, or the difficult way leading to long-term happiness, will reveal what kind of a person they are, and how much they try. Just as the seagull can either easily glide down to the hole of darkness, or struggle through the storm to reach the light, whether a person takes the easy way out of a challenge or battles through it reveals what goal they will eventually try to reach.