Everett Kennedy BrownIn my exploration of Japanese culture, I’ve recently made a deep departure into the Japanese world of sound and silence. Part of the inspiration for this is that, in recent years, I’ve become so aware of how much I overuse my eyes, whether it’s taking photographs or looking at the computer screen or my phone screen. I’m feeling how it disperses my energy.
What I find is, when I focus my eyes on something, this seems to really engage more of the analytical part of the brain, whereas if I let my field of vision just relax and go into a gaze and just to become aware of the perimeter of my vision, this is more of an intuitive realm and, in this realm, there’s this place where auditory awareness overlaps and there’s really a sweet spot there that is inspiring a new body of photographic work that I’m doing.
In my photographic work now, I’m exploring this realm at the edge of vision, where auditory awareness overlaps.
I’ve also started playing music, and I’m discovering how this beautiful world of sound is opening up inside of my brain and expanding my connection with the world, especially through echoes. I have found places in Japan where the echoes continue for 12 seconds, 15 seconds, even 18 seconds.
The beautiful thing about an echo is, when it disappears, just there at the end, we hear it, we don’t hear it, we hear it, we don’t hear it. Then, when it finally disappears, we’re left with this most exquisite silence.
I think a lot of it comes from finally beginning to really be comfortable with myself, with my imperfections, my imperfect relationship with the world, and just being able to relax into that, to relax into the pain of living. Then, by doing that, there are moments of joy, but always moments of new exploration, new realms emerging.
Everett Kennedy Brown is a multi-talented American artist based in Tokyo. He writes books in Japanese, performs ancient wind music and uses an 8×10 camera and hand-made glass negatives to explore Japan’s deep culture. His innovative images are in the permanent collections of museums in Japan, Europe and the United States. In 2013 he was awarded the Japanese Government’s Cultural Affairs Agency Commissioner’s Award in recognition for his creative activities.
