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Deep Seeing
John Einarsen has taken many kinds of photographs throughout his life, but for the past 13 years he has incorporated Miksang contemplative photography into his practice. It is concerned with slowing down our minds in order to see the world “as it is.”
“Seeing” is with us each day and a source of great joy. It is a journey of noticing more deeply whatever is around us, understanding and appreciating the essence of things.
What is the source of a contemplative image? When we are able to be still and receptive, the world appears more vivid, like removing grime from a window. There is a gap in thinking, and if the eye, mind, and heart are aligned, a unique perception can arise and manifest naturally. For a brief window the world can appear as it is unfiltered by human constructs, fresh and exhilarating, and be expressed with precision as a photograph. In this way we genuinely connect to the boundless, graceful, and fleeting nature of reality.
This condition can be elusive and is hard to sustain, and on many days is out of reach entirely. The images presented here were taken in those moments of clarity.
His recent exhibitions have been “Kyoto Stillness: The Photography of John Einarsen” at the Portland Japanese Garden Gallery, “This Very Moment” at the Shoyeido Kunjyukan Gallery in Kyoto and “Openings” at Komyo-in Temple (with Minako Hiromi and Myong-Hee Kim). He received the Kyotographie Lifetime Achievement in 2024.
Einarsen’s photography books include Kyoto: The Forest Within the Gate (with Edith Shiffert and others, 2010), Small Buildings of Kyoto Vol. I & II (2016 and 2017), Zen Gardens and Temples of Kyoto (with John Dougill, 2017), Curtain Motif (2019), and This Very Moment (2022).
Einarsen is also the founding editor of Kyoto Journal which he began with other artists and writers in 1986. Originally from Colorado, he has lived in Kyoto since the early 1980s.