The Soul Project began April 1st, 2009 and ended May 11th, 2010. I had originally intended to end the project on April 1st, 2010 but decided to continue until May 11th, the date in which I received my last submission in 2009. (To read more about it, see entries below; A public statement of intent will be posted here in time, when I feel ready). The conclusion of The Soul Project marks the beginning of my personal 'soul' project, outlined below. Thank you to the trusting and open minded beings that participated in The Soul Project. You gave me so much, the unspeakable even, and in turn, I gave to you and will continue to keep doing so.
Thank you,
Brooke
THE POST SOUL PROJECT
The conclusion of The Soul Project marks the beginning of The Post Soul Project. Within the duration of The Soul Project (April 1st, 2009 - May 11th, 2010) I carried 147 photographs on my person for X amount of time (no less than one week for each photograph). This is the first time I have mentioned what I was doing in that time. The photographs I carried are images that my 'soul' has taken over the span of my lifetime. Moments within the year revealed I had up to 10 photographs on my person at one time.
I started feeling something different towards photography around this time last year. Having studied photography for some time and completing a degree in the subject, I felt as though my passion for the process had faded. Although I did benefit in certain ways from the institution of universalized education, after 6 years of study and 2 fine art universities I felt as though the unconscious passion I had once had (and have had since childhood) for the process of photographic creation was becoming overly didactic, contrived, and dry. I felt used. This is how I feel when I feel separate from my soul, which is creative by nature. After I graduated, I did not create anything uniquely visual for 2 years. To clarify, 'uniquely visual', to me, explains moments in which your soul takes over your body within the creation of an object. Moments in which you are not thinking in mind-sense, but rather your body is creating objects of expression that become visual vessels for your soul. I am sure everyone has experienced such moments in varying ways. One may compare the feeling of these moments to a long drive which feels mechanic and unconscious; you don't remember how you got to your destination at all, but you did. In grasping for a familial relationship to the photograph again, I realized that the way in which I have always connected to a photograph is this: The photograph is the vessel. I can see my soul beyond the frame, behind the lens, within the composition/space/time/moment/intent of the image if the photograph was taken rather randomly or subconsciously.
Just after the winter broke in 2009, I felt the rebirth of the photograph. I became fixated on the idea of the objectification of the photograph and intrigued by photographs which are seemingly loose and forgotten, hasty and delirious; the images in which I feel your soul captures. There are moments in photography when your mind is making the image, and as well, there are moments when your body does. I am interested in the images of the Soul. My soul is right there, right here, I have seen it in those moments. My soul is for sharing, connecting, trusting, and especially loving. I feel compelled to trust and share, thus, The Post Soul Project has begun.
I have begun this project by returning The Soul Projects vessels + souls to their owners via post. Their owners will receive their souls within their vessels, a personalized letter of intent, confessions, repentances, and a moment of my own soul as sacrament (one of the 147 photographs I carried on my person for X amount of time last year). The participants of The Soul Project will be the first to receive a photograph as a sacrament. Thereafter, a vessel containing a section of my soul (i.e. said image) will be sent at random to varying addresses once a week. Addresses will include random strangers and acquaintances. I would like to give sections of my soul to those I know/love/trust as well as those I can know/love/trust (i.e. friends and strangers). I will not be accepting addresses as suggestions but will be seeking addresses via phonebooks, dreams, symbols, and numbers I stumble upon. The receivers of these images will open a small envelope to reveal a photograph that I have carried in my back pocket for X amount of time (no less that one week) within the duration of The Soul Project (that is; April 1st 2009 - May 11 th 2010). No explanation or words of any kind will be printed on the photograph, within or on the envelope with exception of the receivers address. I may choose to scan and post random photographs I send the week in which I send them.
I will continue to do this until all 147 photographs are mailed.
