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A Secret Passage Way - 2014

Global Call to Participate in Photo Project

By: - Jun 17, 2014

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Collaborators:


Michael Bedford, USA ~ Pennie Brantley, USA ~ Katherine Borkowski-Byrne, USA ~ Karmela Berg, Israel ~ Gabriel Braun, Germany ~ Judy Carr Johnson, USA ~ Denis Carriere, France ~ Jomy Couadrado, France ~ Marie Cowgill, USA ~ Liz Cunningham, USA ~ Jon Goldman, USA ~ Jean-Marie Delverdié, France ~ Luydmila Dakhova, Ukraine ~ Zeren Earls, USA/Turkey ~ Mark Favermann, USA ~ Martha Flood, USA ~ Dorothea Fleiss, Germany/Romania ~ Benno Friedman, USA ~ Louis Guermond, France/Romania ~ Charles Giuliano, USA ~ Mary Louise Giuliano, USA ~ Astrid Hiemer, USA ~ Ghetta Hirsch, USA ~ Jane Hudson, USA ~ Dan Kamner, Germany ~ Le C.L.A.P. Galerie d’Arts, France ~ Marjorie Minkin, USA ~ Robert Morgan, USA ~ Larry Murray, USA ~ Dawn Nelson, USA ~ Elisabeth Ochsenfeld, Germany/Romania ~ Wilma Rifkin, USA ~ Maryse Roumengous, France ~ Bob Rosinsky, USA ~ Ann Salk Rosenberg, USA ~ Teodora Stanca, Romania ~ Cristian Stanca, Romania ~ Phil Sellers, USA ~ Ellen Schon, USA ~ Rafique Sulayman, Bangladesh ~ Sarah Sutro, USA ~ Aldo Tambellini, USA ~ Dirk Van der Elst, France ~ Corinne Varon Green, USA ~ Betty Vera, USA ~ Arthur Yanoff, USA ~~

A passageway originally illustrated the article ‘Paraza: A French Global Village – Some 19 Nations Among 565 Inhabitants,’ along with numerous photographs our magical time at an artist retreat in the village of Paraza, South of France. We discovered much later, as documented below, that the passage was really a set of stairs, which I had caught with my camera at a most photogenic moment. Then, the idea of the project germinated until it became clear in mind and concrete in action and there it was! The original invitation for a collaborative project reads as follows:

My Secret Passage Way

Memories are a peculiar thing. / They cannot be relied on to tell the truth!

Surely my Passage Way - were not stairs / Pennie pointed out otherwise. / She became the realist /In this instance.

She painted a Passage Way beautifully / As stairs that led from a nearly hidden entrance / Down to a level on a Paraza hill / Just above the Canal du Midi.

I retreat to my Secret Passage Way / In my mind, while finding moments / That I do not share with anyone. / And I mean: Anyone…

We all have our secrets.

Now, the photograph has been altered / Photo Shop is the current technology. / Leaves have been removed / Along with other minor changes / So that the ‘Secret Passage Way’ appears to be real.

Photos are only moments in time.

When I return to my original Passage Way in my mind / My memories serve me well.

Where do you find your ‘Secret…’ / Real or imagined / Show us!

*At: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007634593438
Or FaceBook page(s) by: Astrid A. Hiemer

(The project continues in its original format on Facebook.)


During four months we called for contributions in the photo and word project ‘A Secret Passage Way’ via personal invitations, emails and on two Face Book pages. More than forty participants submitted poems, photographs, paintings, watercolors, drawings, a jacquard tapestry and a Lexan sculpture. Some 60 photographs span places around the world and many have taken the project into imaginative territories.

The Face Book-project shows mostly the string of photographs with notes  as they were posted from February to May 2014. Here, we have attempted to cluster the contributions expressing similarities or opposites, the yin yang of minds and thoughts. Actually on Face Book we had to re-post several contributors, because jpgs. mysteriously vanished – whose handy-work, I wonder?

Many ‘likes’ and comments can be read on both FB-pages and we exchanged emails and conversations with participants. It has been a lively time expanding the project. Included are memorable notes with the photographs, space permitting, a haiku and a poem that was part of a well fitting project at Le C.L.A.P, Galerie d’Arts in Paraza, France.

Haiku for Havana, Cuba, by Maryse Roumengous

Simple veine souterraine /descendant aux abîmes
le flot apeuré / lèvres serrées / des sombres havanais.

Just an underground 'vein' / descending into the abyss
frightful flood / somber Havana / with their tight lips.

And

The Staircase, by JOMY 24/2/2014

Whether it is hidden, for emergency, or honor,
Whether it is spiral, straight, or double revolution
The staircase,
This strange object that has always given many trouble
To its builders,
Forms this link
That connects the Men of below to the Men of above.
Whether you are big or miserable
There is always a stairway to take
A Stairway to understand
A Stairway to find
And when we get to the end of our stairway
Faced with multiple galaxies
We are left with no more than the simple
Realization that to catch the stars
It is not enough to mount
The staircase.

We are thankful for a truly collaborative project that has enriched us all, participants and viewers from around the world.

More power to creativity!