A Secret Passage Way - 2014

Global Call to Participate in Photo Project

By: Astrid Hiemer - Jun 17, 2014

Initial passageway - Photo: Astrid Hiemer

Larry Murray submitted ’Cloisters as passageways through time and space.’ Photo: S.G. Kimberly, 1907.

’Sacred Duty,’ oil on canvas by Pennie Brantley.

Secret passage San Felipe Fortress, Colombia. Photo: Zeren Earls.

’ The Tunnel of Love,’ submitted by Katherine Borkowski-Byrne. Appropriated from and for Ukraine.

’Sentimental Passage’ by Jane Hudson. Private road on Bartol Island, Freeport, Main. Her parents’ home - no more.

’The Path, Woods Hole, Cape Cod, Massachusetts,’ oil on canvas, by Jon Goldman.

’Beneath Beyond Into,’ oil on canvas by P. Brantley.

Cienfuegos, Cuba - passageway between huge ficus trees. Photo: Jean-Marie Delverdie.

Ancient Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, dates back to 9th Century. Photo: Mark Favermann.

At Luxor Thebes, Egypt, by M. Favermann.

’Passages,’ 1990-94 by Dani Karavan, iron sculpture and Memorial in honor of Walter Benjamin, near Perpignan at Mediterranean Sea. Submitted by Maryse Roumengous.

Two factory workers in Beijing, China, on their way to work. Photo: L. Murray.

Liz Cunningham, photograph: ’I escape my mind - When I stare out to Sea - My narrow world expands.’

’Sun Shadows and Leaves,’ staircase in Paraza, France. Exhibited as a diptych with lead image by A. Hiemer.

Martha Flood combined in a photo-collage grand mother’s painting and above stair case. She's treasured the painting for decades.

Dorothea Fleiss: ’TO BECOME ART - is in us and our soul is dancing. Thoughts, Inspiration, Fascination, Emotion, Emotion....’till Infinity.

’Passageway,’ Paraza, France, oil on board, by P. Brantley.

Dirk Van der Elst submitted paintings, titled: ’First Impressions When Arriving Years Ago.’

D. Van der Elst, painting titled as above.

’Montenegro,’ watercolor, the old stone town of Ulcinj by Sarah Sutro.

Le CLAP Gallery: ’A Present for the Present.’ Denis Carriere and Gabriel Braun - with poem,' The Staircase' by JOMY.

Suggestion of mystery in passageway by Marjorie Minkin.

Bob Rosinsky: ’Cold War #3.’

Wilma Rifkin’s sketch: ’Puerta Falsa,’ in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Dawn Nelson: ’Just, Just, just,’ Berlin, Germany.

Zeren Earls: ’Staircase to El Penol, Colombia.

Z. Earls: ’Back street with steep stairs secretly painted at night, while Istanbul was asleep.’

’Intent’ (L’Escalier, Paris), oil, a painting of hope, by P. Brantley.

"Depth of Perception,’ by P. Brantley.

’Apotheosis of Giuliano and Lorenzo’ (Capella Medici, Florence), by P. Brantley.

Elisabeth Ochsenfeld: It is an Opening to another World, the Historical and our Inner World - with Teodora and Cristian Stanca.

JM Delverdie, ’La Habana,’ Cuba - stairs in the road leading to a part of the city that would not get flooded. With haiku by M. Roumengous.

T. Stanca contributed images of Sibiu, Romania, where many passages lead from Upper to Lower Town. Photo: Dan Kamner.

T. Stanca: ’Goldsmith Passage.’ Photo: D. Kamner.

T.Stanca: ’People, who love the passage ways, walk them at night.’ Photo: Louis Guermond.

T. Stanca:’Kleinen Ring’ - photo: C. Stanca.

M.Favermann: Gaudi, Casa Batilo, 2nd Floor, Barcelona, Spain.

Karmela Berg: ’At the End of a Dark Passage - There is Light’ - Israel.

Judy Carr Johnson:’Lacy Shadows, Spring Snow.’

E. Schoen:’The remnants of winter. Stones leading through a gate to where?’

’Window, Palms,’ watercolor by S. Sutro.

Betty Vera, Jacquard Weaving: ’Fenced.’

Rafique Sulayman: ’A Passage to the Goddess Sarawati,’ Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Michael Bedford: Goree Island, Dakar, Senegal.

Charles Giuliano: ’The Door of No Return,’ Goree Island, Senegal.

A. Hiemer: A matriarch, holding her great-grand son, standing in their compound doorway in Senegal.

M. Bedford:Buddhist monk student framed in the doorway from within a temple, Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Robert Morgan: ’Portofino II’ - acrylic painting.

Marie Cowgill: ’Chambered Cairn,’ Ancient Grave, from Augher, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

A. Hiemer: 5000 year old spiritual site, Newgrange, Ireland.

M. Favermann: Stonehenge, England, photographed on a cold morning just before the Winter Solstice.

GhettaHirsch: Arcachon Bay, Atlantic Ocean, Southwest Coast of France.

Benno Friedman: Baja, California.

Ann Salk Rosenberg: Sam and Shane playing in the Atlantic Ocean, Watch Hill Beach, Westerly, Rhode Island - a magical moment!

T. Stanca: ’ The Secret Passage to My World, Guided by the Sun.' Photo: D. Kamner.

B. Rosinsky: ’ Self Portrait or Final Passage...’

Phil Sellers: A new life will lead to new friends and new adventures.

’Tunnel View,’ inside the layers of a Lexan piece by M. Minkin.

Mary Louise Giuliano: An Arroyo, a dry river bed, photographed while traveling across America. Canyon de Chelly, ancient home of the Anasazi.

Lyudmila Dakhova: Circles or holes indicate what we can see and know - then lead to the unknown... Ukraine.

Corinne Varon Green: ’Interdimensional Passage,’ watercolor on paper.

D. Nelson: I painted this piece to the passages I traveled through in loosing my parents.

’Steerage to Ellis Island,’ ships passing, by Arthur Yanoff.

Aldo Tambellini: ’Black 5’ - my secret passage way into the cosmos through a black hole.

 

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!