The Psychology of "Othering" and Book Ideas

“What you’re trying to create is a certain kind of indispensable presence, where your position in the narrative is not contingent on whether somebody likes you, or somebody knows you, or somebody’s a friend, or somebody’s being generous to you.”- Kerry James Marshall, NPR News, 2017

THE BOOK

I’ve decided to publish a book on this work. The title and subtitle will read, "In the Shadow of Sun Mountain – The Psychology of "Othering." That’s probably not a surprise to a lot of you, but I wanted to share the news.

This will be one way of putting the work out there. There will be other projects to accomplish this as well. Since most people will never see the work in person (an exhibition), and since the book will have more images than an exhibition, this is the most efficient way to get these images and ideas to the masses or the few that are interested in it. And there will be a substantial amount of writing that I could never get to communicate in a gallery setting. If people take the time to read it, they will really understand what I’m trying to do with the work.

I’m not sure when this will be published. It will probably be at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024. It will be a hardcover and, so far, it looks to be about 200+ pages. Quite the tome for a “photobook.” It’s not really just a photobook, though. I want to transcend that a bit and give some in-depth reasoning, philosophy, and “behind-the-scenes” stories about the work. I’m leaning heavily on Becker and Solomon for this. It will be scholarly in that sense, for sure.

The book will concentrate on the history of "othering" but will also shed light on current events. Humans simply repeat history. The images are cradled in the lives of the Ute-Tabeguache of Colorado—my home. But the concept will go even beyond that. It will be broken down into four sections; the introduction and artist’s statement; landscapes, flora, and fauna; objects, and symbols. The book will have between 15 and 20 essays on various topics related to history, psychology, and my experience making the work. I’m repurposing some of the writing that I’ve published here. The essays will be edited and polished up a bit for the book.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF “OTHERING”

I’ve always had a preoccupation with the psychology of "othering." I’ve been talking about it and asking questions about marginalized communities and our treatment of them for over two decades, maybe even longer. I’ve made several bodies of photographic work on this topic too.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve wondered why people group up and make everything "us and them." They will argue and fight about anything and everything. And I mean everything; sports teams, geography, professions, politics, Facebook groups, religion, gender, etcetera.

I’m guilty of it too. I feel the feelings and think the thoughts like everyone else. I suppose the difference is that I realize when I’m doing it and I’ve never taken it to extremes—at least I hope I haven’t.

I've always been aware of my thoughts about differences. I believe that’s where my questions originated. I’m always willing to have a rational and reasonable discussion about them, whether they’re real or perceived. I don’t think we can ever not have these feelings and thoughts; we’re built this way. It’s baked into our death anxiety condition—and it’s a powerful buffer we cling to for security and self-esteem.

That’s why Ernest Becker’s writing is so potent for me. He was able to answer questions that I’d been struggling with for 30 years or longer. He clearly laid out the human condition, and there’s not much room for argument. His theories are solid. Sheldon Solomon and his crew put his theories to the test—the literal test. And they panned out. Read “The Worm At The Core: The Role Of Death In Life” it will make you a believer. It is what it is, whether we like it or not, understand it or not, or agree with it or not. That’s where we are.

His books have had such an influence on me; it’s really pushed my (photographic) work in a different direction. I’m primarily a portrait photographer and artist. I would normally have people in front of my camera. Not anymore. Based on his theories of the denial of death, Becker gave me insight into making work that was both abstract and impactful, sitting together with these ideas. If you look through the work and study it, you’ll find what I’m talking about. For me, it’s Becker’s theories visualized.

The big problems come when people rationalize their "othering"—they justify it and not only make it okay, they think it’s their "duty to stand up for what’s right." I’m sure you’ve seen examples of this recently. I could list several just in the past week alone, everything from mass shootings to anti-mask people freaking out at school board meetings and many more.

It’s beyond worrisome at this point. When I feel emotional about it, I simply refer to Becker’s words. I understand why it’s happening, and that seems to calm me down. Knowledge is power. Plato said, "The true lover of knowledge naturally strives for truth and is not content with common opinion, but soars with undimmed and unwearied passion till he grasps the essential nature of things." That’s always been my goal, especially now.

My book will be a story of "othering." A specific story about the Ute/Tabeguache that once lived where I live now. It will be an artistic and psychological trip into the “why.” It will explain, as best I can translate, Becker and Solomon's reasons behind the genocide of Indigenous peoples. I see the pictures as the residue, if you will, or reminders of the past. For me, they hold both the beauty and the tragedy of the people and the place. I hope they will evoke emotions and feelings in the viewer. And I hope the written portion gives some answers or explanations about all of it, past and present.

At the end of the day, my goal is to add to the long list of people who have tried to shed light on human behavior, to make people aware of the unconscious, and to plead for change—real personal change. One of Becker’s hopes was that everyone understood his theories. Just the fact of knowing about this can help bring about change—one person at a time. I know this is too much to ask. It's not realistic. But I can still hope.

I’ll close this essay with some positive words. And maybe, in some abstract way, some answers to the mortality salience problem—the death anxiety problem.

Every day, I try my best to do the following: Be grateful for everything. Be happy to be alive. Be in awe of life—of living and of nature. And try to be humble. Not in a self-deprecating way, but in a modest, unpretentious, unassuming way. Share the good things that you have to offer the world. And find meaning and significance in the things you love to do.

These are big asks in our world of social media (siloed lives), our drive for wealth and fame, and our desire to “stand out” and compete with the world. I’ve heard Sheldon Solomon recommend pursuing noble attributes (previous paragraph). They may bring some relief to your existential crisis, and your death anxiety.

Mockup idea #2

Mockup idea #3:

I’m thrilled with this picture (a photogenic drawing of pigweed). When I saw it after I pulled the plant from the paper, I was beside myself. It reminds me of this song I recently heard. It’s called “Turtles All The Way Down,” by Sturgill Simpson. I listen to a wide variety of music; no genre is off-limits to me. As far as country music goes, normally I would go for the older stuff like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Geoge Jones, Tammy Wynette, etc.

Lately, I’ve been listening to him (Sturgill Simpson), and I like a lot of his music. He’s a great storyteller. I couldn’t believe the lyrics when I first heard the song (“Turtles All The Way Down”). He talks about psychedelics and how they’ve changed him. And he comes down hard on organized religion. I’m familiar with the Bertrand Russell story of turtles all the way down and have read Stephen Hawking’s book, “A Brief History of Time,” where he tells that story as a rebuttal to the existence of God. It’s really about infinite regress. But I digress. I’ll write an essay about it. I think people might find it interesting. This image reminds me of these lyrics in the song:

“I've seen Jesus play with flames
In a lake of fire that I was standing in….

There's a gateway in our minds
That leads somewhere out there, far beyond this plane
Where reptile aliens made of light
Cut you open and pull out all your pain..,”

The Birth and Death of Meaning & Photogenic Drawings

AMARANTHUS RETROFLEXUS (PIGWEED)—a Kallitype print from a wet collodion negative.

THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF MEANING
Ernest Becker was a cultural anthropologist. He's best known for his death-centric perspective on human psychology. He’s also known for eliciting the creation of the Terror Management Theory (TMT). He died in 1974.

He wrote several books in his lifetime. “The Denial of Death” was the first book of his I read. In this book, Becker builds on the works of Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, Norman O. Brown, and Otto Rank to discuss the psychological and philosophical implications of how people and cultures have reacted to the concept of death.

The three most potent books for me are “The Denial of Death” (Pulitzer Prize 1974), “The Birth and Death of Meaning,” and “Escape from Evil.” Together, they provide insight into human behavior that changed my view of what it means to live and the meaning of, and in, life. These theories have also answered profound questions about my pursuit of making art. I always tell people that these books are life-altering. And that’s not an exaggeration. As they say, once you leave the cave, you can never go back in.

MEANING. SIGNIFICANCE. TRANSCENDENCE.
In chapter nine of his book, “The Birth and Death of Meaning,” Becker talks about self-esteem. I’m willing to bet that your definition of self-esteem is not how Becker defines it.

THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF SELF-ESTEEM
William James wrote about self-esteem in the late 19th century. He said that self-esteem is based on two elements: our actual achievements and our aspirations. Becker was well aware of his theories and took them a step further. Why is it that human beings need to feel good about themselves? According to Becker, self-esteem is a death anxiety buffer. What are the sources of self-esteem? Primarily, we get our self-esteem from our culture. Becker calls it our “cultural worldview.” A good culture will have many different ways that a person can find their self-esteem. Cultures that don’t provide opportunities for self-esteem have major problems. People will suffer from depression, anxiety, and all kinds of mental health problems.

WHY HAVE PEOPLE HISTORICALLY BEEN UNABLE TO GET ALONG WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE DIFFERENT FROM THEM?
This is the second question Becker seemed preoccupied with. He talks about colonizers using methods to strip culture from native or indigenous people. Once they lose their self-esteem, they are easy to dominate. These are methods used by all colonizers. Everyone needs culture to provide them with self-esteem or ways to acquire self-esteem. If that is removed, the people will have a hard time not assimilating to the colonizers’ ways.

I’ll do an essay on the book. “The Worm at the Core: The Role of Death in Life,” but wanted to share this excerpt about self-esteem. “If there were any doubt that self-esteem is the dominant [human] motive... there would be one sure way to dispel it,” Ernest Becker wrote, “and that would be by showing that when people do not have self-esteem they cannot act, they break down.” What makes it difficult to acquire and maintain self-esteem? And what happens when self-esteem is lacking?

There are two main ways self-esteem can break down. First, individuals, or groups of people, can lose faith in their cultural worldviews. Such disillusionment can be precipitated by economic upheaval, technological and scientific innovations, environmental catastrophes, wars, plagues, or unwelcome intrusions by other cultures. For example, before the arrival of the first Europeans, the Yup’ik people of Alaska belonged to a thriving culture ruled by deep customs, traditions, and spiritual beliefs. Their tribal and individual codes of conduct were defined by what they called the Yuuyaraq (“the way of being a human being”), which told each member how to behave in any situation. When the Europeans—carrying guns, germs, and steel that killed a majority of the population—imposed their Christian worldviews on the Yup’ik, the aboriginal people lost their identity. The medicine men grew ill and died, and with them the ancient spirit of the Eskimo and the code of Yuuyaraq. Everything the Yup’ik had believed in failed, and their whole world collapsed.

Such catastrophes occurred all over the world where indigenous cultures were subject to colonization. But other circumstances can erode faith in a cultural belief system as well. Even the United States may be in the midst of such erosion in the wake of economic uncertainty, church and sports scandals, and political polarization. As of this writing, seven in ten Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track; eight in ten don’t agree with the way the nation is being governed. Church attendance, even in as strongly religious a country as the United States, has steadily declined. Public schools, particularly in urban areas, are in disarray. “We have lost our gods,” Laura Hansen, a sociologist at Western New England University, told reporters for The Atlantic. “We lost [faith] in the media: Remember Walter Cronkite? We lost it in our culture: You can’t point to a movie star who might inspire us, because we know too much about them. We lost it in politics because we know too much about their lives. We’ve lost it—that basic sense of trust and confidence—in everything.”

When people lose confidence in their core beliefs, they become literally “dis-illusioned” because they lack a functional blueprint of reality. Without such a map, there is no basis for determining what behaviors are appropriate or desirable, leaving no way to plot a course to self-esteem. (The Worm at the Core: The Role of Death in Life: Page 44-45)

Medicinal plant—a photogenic drawing. Teller County, Colorado

The Great Mullein (leaf)—a photogenic drawing. Teller County, Colorado

Meadow Barley—a photogenic drawing. Teller County, Colorado

“Meadow Barley”—a Palladiotype print from a wet collodion negative.

BLUE GRAMA GRASS—a photogenic drawing. (the glass on the contact printing frame broke during the exposure, hence the “lines”)

It can be ground into a powder, mixed with water, and eaten as a mush, often with corn meal. It is also used to make bread. It is also an important food for mule deer, elk, and bison, all of which the Ute/Tabeguache hunted and relied on for food, shelter, and tools.

Blue Grama Grass—a Palladiotype print from a wet collodion negative.

Fringed Sage—a photogenic drawing. Teller County, Colorado

Fringed Sage (detail)—a photogenic drawing. Teller County, Colorado

Fringed Sage - Palldiotype

The Imperfect In Art: The Pinnacle of Beauty & Meaning

“What art is, in reality, is the missing link, not the links which exist. It’s not what you see that is art; art is the gap.” -Marcel Duchamp, 1975

I know this is probably an old and tired topic for some of you. Hang with me for a minute. I’d like to try and add something new to this philosophy as it applies to art and photography.

Almost everyone in the art world has heard of the Japanese word (or is it words?) wabi-sabi. It’s most commonly used as a platitude for justifying bad art. That’s not what it means. It has a deeper, richer, and more enlightening purpose. And I believe it’s directly connected to the denial of death and death anxiety.

Wabi-sabi is a worldview that is centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. In fact, it finds the pinnacle of beauty and meaning in both. I see this philosophy as a death anxiety buffer. And it’s a very good one to employ in your life and art. Thinking deeply about our animality and our imperfection will allow us to come to terms with our fate. Albert Camus said, “There is only one liberty, to come to terms with death; thereafter, anything is possible.” I believe this is at the core of the Wabi-sabi philosophy.

The philosophy consists of these ideas: nothing is permanent, nothing is perfect, and nothing is complete. Sit with those for a minute. Allow them to seep in. If you live in the digital photography world today, or even the film world, you are bombarded with technology to make your photographs better, even perfect. As humans, we strive for perfection, which is never attainable. We want sharp focus, clean surfaces, amazing composition, and flawless light. We even want big, huge prints (physical). Everything we’ve learned about what’s important in photography is based on concepts that are exactly the opposite of wabi-sabi. That in and of itself should speak volumes to us.

“Plate #121, Bullet Holes & Feathers”-Whole Plate Palladiotype from a wet collodion negative.

As I said in the second paragraph of this essay, I believe we do this because of our denial of death. I can easily argue for that position. The desire for perfection staves off the anxiety of impermanence. We find comfort in the perceived permanence of our (archival) images. We symbolically live beyond our physical selves. Perceived perfection is achieved by the use of technology to meet cultural expectations for what the world wants, like size, sharpness, etc. And finally, completeness. Answering all of the questions both visually and philosophically as we understand them from our cultural worldview requires a kind of certitude that doesn’t really exist. We literally fool ourselves, albeit unconsciously, about what we’re doing and why. The point of all of this is to build self-esteem (to find meaning and significance in our culture), which in turn, quells our anxiety about our mortality.

Let’s talk about content as it applies to the denial of death. Have you ever seen portraits of young naked women? Have you seen luxurious scenes of wealth and affluence? Perfect prints of El Capitan or Yosemite Park? A beautiful, perfect rose or flower? Any image that shows perfection, youth, power, and strength can be directly connected to Ernest Becker’s theories on the human condition and is in direct opposition to the philosophy of wabi-sabi.

These images exist and are “popular” because they shield us from death anxiety. When I post a picture of a dying plant, a blurry portrait of a horse with poor composition, or a landscape where genocide occurred, it gives the viewer pause. The reason for this is that this kind of content acts as a death reminder; it unconsciously raises the dander (if you will) in the viewer and reminds them of their mortality. Their death anxiety is moved from a shielded place, safely out of range, to the forefront of their (subconscious) minds. And they may not even be aware of it.

I might argue that these kinds of images are not beautiful, they’re not ideal, and they’re not made to celebrate life. They are made to mask what is real. They’re made to make us hide behind an illusion that we’ll live forever, that death has no hold or power over us. They’re fake and fraudulent in the most direct ways.

Does all of this mean that you should break all of the “rules” in photography? Yes, it does. Or at least try to refrain from them having such a grip on you that you can never make pictures that are “good” enough. Allow the viewer to feel the work as much as they see it. I would recommend being open to imperfections that support your narrative. After all, they represent your own human imperfections. There is beauty in that. We resist and unconsciously dislike anything that represents our animality. Becker called us “gods with anuses." What an accurate description of how we think and what we deny.

“White Horse-Teller County, Colorado”-Whole Plate toned Cyanotype from a Calotype (paper negative).

In "Escape from Evil," Becker said, “Man is an animal who has to live in a lie in order to live at all.” He goes on to say in his book, “The Denial of Death,” “The real world is simply too terrible to admit. It tells man that he is a small trembling animal who will someday decay and die. Culture changes all of this, makes man seem important and vital to the universe. immortal in some ways.” And finally, "The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity—designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man."

This is a difficult concept to process, let alone be aware of—it feels counterintuitive, or maybe even that it’s not applicable to you. Yet it is very true as you come to realize how these ideas sit together in the reality of your life, and they are all applicable to every human being.

If we step back and objectively look at how we live, what we think, and how we behave (see Socrates and self-examination), we’ll quickly realize that we have a distorted view of life and living. If we pick bad illusions or immortality projects, we can end up doing a lot of damage to humanity. However, if we try to come to terms with our death (see Camus quote above) and our imperfections, even celebrate them in our art and life, I think we’ll have a better, or healthier (psychologically speaking), view of our life and our death. In the end, we’ll make better art, and moreover, we’ll have empathy and compassion for others’ imperfections; think wabi-sabi and find beauty and meaning in the imperfect. After all, that’s who we are.

Qualia & Art: My Definition

QUALIA - “THE MOLYNEUX PROBLEM”
What defines art as art is the ongoing question we wrestle with. How do people react to it, and why do they react in the manner that they do? What senses do they use to experience art? What are they inwardly processing and projecting onto the artwork? Finally, what can, or can’t, they perceive? These are significant and ambiguous questions. Some of these queries can be answered to some extent by the theory of qualia. And if you research this concept, you might be able to potentially apply it to your work. At least in some indirect way.

The first time I heard about qualia was in a story about a girl called Molly. She was born blind. She never saw a shape or color in her life. For years, she carried around a die and a marble. She thought they brought her good luck. When she was older, the doctors performed corneal lens surgery, and she was able to see.

The die and marble were placed before her, and she wasn’t able to identify either one. She had never seen these objects before; she only had the internal experience of feeling and touching them. It sounds strange that the shapes weren’t obvious to her; she had carried these objects for years. If you are sighted, you would have never experienced this phenomenon. It shows that what we perceive internally versus externally can be very different. This is the age-old question of qualia and how we know what we know.

Qualia: n. ( sing. quale) 1. characteristics or qualities that determine the nature of a mental experience (sensation or perception) and make it distinguishable from other such experiences, so that, for example, the experiencer differentiates between the sensations of heat and cold.

Plate #124 - “Ute Lodge” whole-plate wet collodion negative.

Qualia are the subjective or qualitative properties of experiences. What it feels like, experientially, to see a red rose is different from what it feels like to see a yellow rose. Likewise, hearing a musical note played by a piano and hearing the same musical note played by a tuba. The qualia of these experiences are what give each of them their characteristic “feel” and also what distinguishes them from one another. Qualia have traditionally been thought to be intrinsic qualities of experience that are directly available to introspection. However, some philosophers offer theories of qualia that deny one or both of those features. (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

This is a very interesting topic as it relates to art and photography specifically. As I said above, the question we’re always asking is what makes art, Art? How do people respond to it and why do they respond a certain way? Qualia can start to answer some of these questions. And, if you study these ideas, you may be able to incorporate them into your practice, at least theoretically.

What is the qualia argument?
It rests on the idea that someone who has complete physical knowledge about another conscious being might yet lack knowledge about how it feels to have the experiences of that being. It is one of the most discussed arguments against physicalism.

Qualia as phenomenal character. Consider your visual experience as you stare at a bright turquoise color patch in a paint store. There is something it is like for you subjectively to undergo that experience. What it is like to undergo the experience is very different from what it is like for you to experience a dull brown color patch. This difference is a difference in what is often called ‘phenomenal character’. The phenomenal character of an experience is what it is like subjectively to undergo the experience. If you are told to focus your attention upon the phenomenal character of your experience, you will find that in doing so you are aware of certain qualities. These qualities—ones that are accessible to you when you introspect and that together make up the phenomenal character of the experience are sometimes called ‘qualia’. C.S. Peirce seems to have had something like this in mind when he introduced the term ‘quale’ into philosophy in 1866 (1866/1982, para 223). From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

INTROSPECTION
Introspection is the process by which someone comes to form beliefs about their own mental states. We might form the belief that someone else is happy on the basis of perception—for example, by perceiving their behavior. But a person typically does not have to observe their own behavior in order to determine whether they are happy. Rather, one makes this determination by introspecting.

When compared to other beliefs that we have, the beliefs that we acquire through introspection seem epistemically special. Though the term “introspection” literally means “looking within” (from the Latin “spicere” meaning “to look” and “intra” meaning “within”), whether introspecting should be treated analogously to looking – that is, whether introspection is a form of inner perception – is debatable. Philosophers have offered both observational and non-observational accounts of introspection. Following the discussion of these various issues about the epistemology and nature of introspection, the third section of this essay addresses an important use to which introspection has been put in philosophical discussions, namely, to draw metaphysical conclusions about the nature of mind. (IEP)

APPLYING QUALIA TO ART (PHOTOGRAPHY) - TRANSCENDENT ART
What does this all mean in terms of looking at and experiencing photographs? This is where words really do fall short. You can’t write about something like this very well. It’s a very personal, intimate experience that you “feel” more than you see.

Think of the feeling of love or the private pleasure of watching a sunset as examples of qualia that make their way into the domain of our conscious awareness. We try to describe them even if we can't. When words fail us, we turn to making photographs and prints, painting, sculpting, creating musical compositions, and a variety of other artistic mediums to express ourselves.

So, the preservation of the artist's own qualia must come first in their artistic endeavors. Inspiration comes suddenly and transcends time and space. It must be honored and kept in order for the location of its origin to be visited in the future, even if it will never happen again. I try to keep qualia at the forefront of my mind when exploring ideas for an image. I try to stay conscious of when I experience this and then act on it as quickly as possible. In the end, I know I only share a shadow of the qualia I experienced, but, to some extent, it is preserved in the images that I make. It is, in fact, second-hand qualia. That’s all it can ever be.

It’s up for debate whether or not some qualia ought to be retained. The question of whether art is successful or "good" is unaffected by whether it is enjoyable or unpleasant to experience. For instance, all it takes is a quick glance at one of Vincent Van Gogh's self-portraits for someone to feel what it feels like to be so depressed that they amputate their own ear.

Immortalize your qualia, that’s the goal. Transcended art is what qualia refers to-getting the closest we can to the most intimate experience in creating art and showing it the best way we know how. That’s the definition of qualia to me.

Plate #124 - “Ute Lodge” whole-plate toned cyanotype from a wet collodion negative.

Death Reminders & Terror Management Theory

DEATH REMINDERS
Albert Camus said, “The day when I am no more than a writer, I shall cease to be a writer.” Those words sit solidly with me. I can really feel what he meant by saying this. I feel the same way. I think we should always strive for our work to be more than just what it is. Whatever medium we work in, we should go beyond the medium itself. Art should transcend the materials, in other words. That’s why the concepts are so important; they carry the work to a bigger and more important place.

If you follow my blog, you know that my project (“In the Shadow of Sun Mountain”) is based on the human response to death anxiety. Specifically, what the European colonizers did to the indigenous people (Ute/Tabeguache) in the 19th century in Colorado. My photographs hold these places, plants, and objects as reminders of the behavior of the colonizers. The colonizers had a common worldview, or set of beliefs. This allowed for the justification of killing the Native Americans and stealing their land. You’ll read about Manifest Destiny in a couple of paragraphs. This is death anxiety and the denial of death played out and acted on in the worst way possible.

Ernest Becker’s theories are clear about why people do these kinds of things to “the other.” There are many reasons to feel threatened by people who are different. It can be as simple as physical appearance or as complex as what “god(s)” you believe in, or not. Or a combination of things.

Cultural worldviews drive these beliefs. Politics, socioeconomic status, and all kinds of cultural standards can provoke these threats. A person will feel secure in his/her/their environment if they’re sharing the same beliefs and acting on the same worldview—all shared experiences and beliefs. They find meaning and significance in common cultural activities. Look at the holidays—any of them. People find a great death anxiety buffer in participating in these kinds of things (see TMT below). If someone doesn’t participate or believe in the same kinds of things, this presents a problem. It’s a threat. When a person’s worldview is challenged, it provokes either conversion or confrontation. If the person that feels challenged can’t convince the “challenger” to come to their beliefs, bad things can happen. In the words of Sheldon Solomon, “My God is better than your God and I’ll kick your ass to prove it.” This is death anxiety acted out.

The colonizers thought that “God” had given them not only the right but had actually commanded them to take this land by force and kill the people here (“the other”). Manifest Destiny, a phrase coined in 1845, is the idea that the United States was destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. That meant committing genocide on the Indigenous people here and stealing their land and resources. The Indigenous people that survived were moved to prisoner-of-war camps, also known as reservations.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. It’s been going on since the beginning of humanity. And it’s not the most recent instance of this kind of behavior either. It happens all of the time, all over the world. It’s our human condition that drives us to commit these atrocities and to believe that we’re justified in doing so. It’s our denial of death, our death anxiety that’s at the root of it—the driver or motivator for it. We are so terrified of not existing, we make up stories, hide behind material stuff, try to gain status and money, we try anything and everything so that we can quell the anxiety of mortality salience—or the knowledge of our impending death.

Susan Sontag wrote in her book, “Regarding the Pain of Others,” ”Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question of what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. If one feels that there is nothing 'we' can do -- but who is that 'we'? -- and nothing 'they' can do either -- and who are 'they?’-- then one starts to get bored, cynical, apathetic.”

I want my art to evoke these feelings in the viewer. I want to encourage them to consider their own existential crisis—their own death anxiety. This is the purpose of my work: to offer some “food for thought" on these concepts.

TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY (TMT)
Terror management theory (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, and Solomon) holds that people specifically feel threatened by their own mortality, so to allay their anxiety, they subscribe to meaningful worldviews that allow them to feel enduring self-worth. TMT is a dual-defense model that explains how people protect themselves against concerns about death (mortality salience). According to TMT, the specific manner in which people respond is dependent on whether the concerns are conscious or unconscious. Conscious concerns about death are combated by proximal defenses aimed at eliminating the threat from focal attention. Once this goal has been accomplished, distal defenses become the primary method of protection. Distal defenses diminish unconscious concerns about mortality via a sense of meaning (i.e., worldviews) and value (i.e., self-esteem). Such defenses are also activated when death concerns are primed outside of conscious awareness. (J.K. Thompson, ... S. Chait, in Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance, 2012)

Plate #122-”Fringed Sage (Artemisia Frigida)” whole plate cyanotype from a wet collodion negative.

Plate #121 - In the Shadow of Sun Mountain

Morning walks with Jeanne get me to reflect on topics I've been reading about and researching concerning my project. I always come across things that make me think or motivate me. The cool mountain air and the beauty of the changing seasons are lovely; it’s a great environment to meditate on what I’m trying to do. If there’s something that really hits me hard, when I get home, I’ll head to the darkroom and begin the process of making a photograph. Today was one of those days.

It works well on some days and not so well on others. Regardless, I enjoy the entire creative process. It's challenging trying to make visuals that support the concepts or ideas I have in my head and heart. Symbolism is my staple for this work. Yes, the content is "real" and represents what it is, but my desire is to take it to a deeper conceptual level. We’re symbolic in so many ways, and we create lives that symbolize something they’re not. I’m fascinated and intrigued by these kinds of ideas.

I love the painterly quality and color of the cyanotype (below). I’m going to explore some other organic compounds to tone these prints. I used tannic acid and gallic acid on this one. A lot of people don’t like how the tannic acid stains the paper. I like it. It adds a sense of age to the print. It feels like something else—and it kind of transcends photography.

Plate #121-Whole plate toned cyanotype from a wet collodion negative.

Homo aestheticus: where art comes from and why.
All human societies throughout history have given a special place to the arts. Even nomadic peoples who own scarcely any material possessions embellish what they do own, decorate their bodies, and celebrate special occasions with music, song, and dance. A fundamentally human appetite or need is being expressed—and met—by artistic activity. As Ellen Dissanayake argues in this stimulating and intellectually far-ranging book, only by discovering the natural origins of this human need of art will we truly know what art is, what it means, and what its future might be. Describing visual display, poetic language, song and dance, music, and dramatic performance as ways by which humans have universally, necessarily, and immemorially shaped and enhanced the things they care about, Dissanayake shows that aesthetic perception is not something that we learn or acquire for its own sake but is inherent in the reconciliation of culture and nature that has marked our evolution as humans. What "artists" do is an intensification and exaggeration of what "ordinary people" do, naturally and with enjoyment—as is evident in premodern societies, where artmaking is universally practiced. Dissanayake insists that aesthetic experience cannot be properly understood apart from the psychobiology of sense, feeling, and cognition--the ways we spontaneously and commonly think and behave. If homo aestheticus seems unrecognizable in today's modern and postmodern societies, it is so because "art" has been falsely set apart from life, while the reductive imperatives of an acquisitive and efficiency-oriented culture require us to ignore or devalue the aesthetic part of our nature. Dissanayake's original and provocative approach will stimulate new thinking in the current controversies regarding multicultural curricula and the role of art in education. Her ideas also have relevance to contemporary art and social theory and will be of interest to all who care strongly about the arts and their place in human, and humane, life.
Source: Publisher
Dissanayake, E. (1992). Homo aestheticus: where art comes from and why. New York: Free Press.

Taking A Deeper Dive Into My Concept - The Denial of Death

“Art is crucial for transforming death and pain into forms that can in some way enhance the life that remains.” 
- Robert Jay Lifton

Making Art is difficult. It’s a moving target. No one can just sit down one day and write out a concept, plan, and execute it all without changes, transformation, etc. And sometimes there are major changes to the ideas and concepts. Maybe even to the work. How it’s made, what it’s made with, etc.

As you make work, it reveals something to you. It reveals direction and purpose. But the heart of the work revolves around meaning.

“Deer Antlers” Plate #102. Whole Plate Palladiotype from a wet collodion negative.

As I make prints and live with these images my mind is changing the course of the concept of the work. I’ve been thinking about my project in terms of death anxiety lately. If you ever get a chance, watch my YouTube show called, “Dr. Sheldon Solomon, Death Denial & Artists, Terror Management Theory - Death Anxiety, Ernest Becker“. I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Sheldon Solomon on as a guest and we talked about all of this stuff. He co-authored a book called. “The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life”. It’s a book about Terror Management Theory (TMT). It’s basically Becker’s theories put to the test. In other words, Solomon and his colleagues test Becker’s theories in real life. Do we act differently toward people who are different when we are reminded of our mortality? What’s the driving force behind all human activity? Why do we start wars? Why do we commit genocide? Etcetera, etcetera.

This is what my project is slowly bringing forward. The more I think about these ideas and re-read the books I have, the more I move toward this as a main theme of the work.

I’ve studied Becker and Solomon for a few years. I first read, “The Denial of Death” by Ernest Becker a few years ago. In it, he argues that “the basic motivation for human behavior is our biological need to control our basic anxiety, to deny the terror of death.” (Keen 1973). Becker suggested that a significant function of culture is to provide successful ways to engage in death denial. Becker also noted that the root of evil lies in the selfishness of human beings seeking to protect their own existence in the face of their mortality, which he regarded as an essential aspect of human nature. Recognizing such evil within human beings gave Becker concern about the future of human society.

It had a big impact on me. It influenced my photography in major ways. I realized the question that I had been asking for over 30 years was, “Why do people do the things they do?” I was asking the question specifically as it applies to marginalized communities and how they are treated. Graduate school helped a lot but Becker put it all in perspective for me.

I quickly learned that the knowledge of our impending death is the reason we treat the “other” (anyone different from us in any way) the way we do. Anyone who threatens our “hero systems” either needs to conform to our belief system or be eliminated. Becker describes the human pursuit of “immortality projects” (or causa sui), in which we create or become part of something that we feel will outlast our time on earth. In doing so, we feel that we become heroic and part of something eternal that will never die, compared to the physical body that will eventually die. This gives human beings the belief that our lives have meaning, purpose, and significance in the grand scheme of things.

If our system that keeps death anxiety at bay is challenged (our hero systems), we lash out and can do horrible things. Ernest Becker said, “Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.” Some of these “systems” are good, but most are bad. Becker argued that the conflict between contradictory immortality projects/hero systems (particularly in religion) is a wellspring for the violence and misery in the world caused by wars, genocide, racism, nationalism, and so forth, since immortality projects that contradicts one another threaten one’s core beliefs and sense of security.

As a vehicle for the masses to act out their urge for heroism, Becker went as far as to characterize society as a “codified hero system, which means that society everywhere is a living myth of the significance of human life, a defiant creation of meaning".

I feel like I have a good grasp of these concepts. I believe them to be true and accurate too. They answer questions (and ask) about the human condition in ways that I’ve never thought about. These are some of life’s very big questions. And these topics are dense and sometimes disturbing to deal with.

Currently, my project is dealing with the Ute, specifically, the Tabeguache band that lived on the land where I live now. It’s about my process of dealing with what I feel about living on stolen indigenous land. I’m trying to connect the landscape, rock formations, medicinal plants, and symbolic objects to the people that once occupied this land and were dispossessed of it. What I’m really dealing with is the question of death denial and death anxiety.

Ernest Becker said, “What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance. Man wants to know that his life has somehow counted, if not for himself, then at least in a larger scheme of things, that it has left a trace, a trace that has meaning. And in order for anything once alive to have meaning, its effects must remain alive in eternity in some way. Or, if there is to be a ‘final’ tally of the scurrying of man on earth—a ‘judgment day’—then this trace of one's life must enter that tally and put on record who one was and that what one did was significant.”

My work isn’t about history. It’s not even about the Ute/Tabeguache. It’s about the denial of death, our immortality projects, and how we act these beliefs out.

This history is just one example of death anxiety. I could spend the day with you and show several small (or large) examples of this psychology playing out in our lives. This is what this work is really about. The questioning of human motivation, activity, and behavior; this history, this land, these places, and these objects, are simply ideas or metaphors to communicate those questions. I’ll continue to work on it.

“Meadow Barley” Plate #88. Whole Plate Palladiotype from a wet collodion negative.