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Morning In The House Of Many Buddhas

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The house is full of statuary and there are so many statues of Buddha that looking in any direction reveals several.  Many are backlit by stained glass windows that glow powerfully with the light of the morning sun. Leaving the kitchen with a first cup of coffee the scene demands a moment of pause – a contemplative visual inventory.

Silhouettes captured with just a hint of volume. Intriguing for their subtle inroads to the imagination’s ability to fill in missing details.  There is a certain comfortable feeling to be in the interior shadows. A calm of the presence of many statues with enough age to be wise. They do not watch or follow. They aren’t felt. They seem to only exist while being seen.

And the visual inventory is continuous. They occupy the flat surfaces and the walls of every room.

Objects this old should be brought into a space by feel. They will never acquire enough from the short time in a new place to overcome what they possess already from being so long in the places of their past. That is, if they absorb anything of their surroundings through time.

They might be given momentary power through imagination and vantage point.

Or just quietly exist, … waiting on the floor. Always present and never demanding notice.

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Written by Howard Faxon

34 Comments

    • Thanks Pamela. For some of these I used Patrick taught to me for fill light that is not so stark as a bare flash. I took a bit of a coffee filter and put it over the flash on my camera with a rubber band. The person who taught me that used Kleenex and it softens the light so well. I am very thankful they showed me this trick.
      Cheers 🙂

    • Thanks. I’m glad for your suggestion to resurrect a post along these lines. It was nice to revisit the photos and think about describing them.
      This is a fraction of the objects there – a tiny fraction.
      Cheers!

        • Not really – I only took pictures on the ground floor in two rooms and a couple in the garden. I took no pictures on the upper floors or in the storage. A lot of the pictures are more like snapshots. I feel it’s kind of invasive to photograph at a private residence. It doesn’t sit well.
          And, some things don’t photograph (sure it’s rare) – When I was installing the Asian Art Museum in their new building I took a picture of a piece in the Himalaya section and it was blurry like a veil was there. I tried three more times and never could photograph it. Years later I was talking to someone about the human bone trumpets and stuff there and they said, “Those things are no joke, they are powerful – you can’t photograph some of them.” Apparently the museum photographers that document the collections have similar experiences some times.

        • No one ever has investigated that I know of. They don’t really talk about it even. It came up in conversation with another museum worker. I told them I couldn’t get a clear picture and they shrugged like not surprising.

    • Thanks so much.
      No, this is the house of my friends. I don’t really have the expertise or resources to acquire so many things of this type. I would gladly live there though as it is quite beautiful and has a deck garden that is truly spiritually refreshing.

    • Thank you so much. I revamped this old post from another platform by request of someone. I love those silhouettes though they may not be the best photos. I just really like them.
      Cheers. 🙂

    • Italo Calvino often assigned life to objects as if they were living in his writings. I have never discounted this idea because it is intriguing. And a person feels what they feel – it is hard to deny that. I have theories about it that I seldom express.
      Thanks so much 🙂

    • This is the house of my friends who both had long careers working in museums and used their expertise in some areas of art to make very wise purchases over many years. This is a small fraction of what they acquired. There are many more rooms and the house is stuffed with objects. They have things in storage as well. It’s the only private residence I’ve seen that is quite so cluttered.
      Thanks – I never took photos there until I stayed over a few days and I had my camera for a lunar event and couldn’t resist. A bit weird to photo someone’s house maybe.

    • Thank you very much Albert. These only show a tiny fraction of what is in the house. There are also pieces that they have in storage. I’ve noticed that they do rotate some of their pieces in and out of the house and rearrange things from time to time. Or they add a new one and something goes missing. It is hard to describe hanging around there but it is the only place I’ve been containing so many sculptural figures where I never get the startled feeling of someone hovering in the corner of my eye.
      It’s very calm like absent – hard to explain for me (not a poet)
      Anyway Cheers 🙂

    • Thank you so much Kim. Those silhouettes are also ones I like. After camera work could have brought out more details of the dark areas but I didn’t like the look. It’s silly maybe but I really adore that horse statue photo for some reason. Thanks again, Cheers

      • I was thinking the same thing, the horse is really awesome too. I was reading where you took a tissue and put it over your flash. Great idea, I should try that. I do like the others as they show how old they really are. But i am partial to a good silhouette.

        • That trick with the flash works so well. The flash on the cameras is not soft. Do keep that trick in your mind for outdoor portraits or for dark rooms with bright windows. The shadows are softer, the fill light is not noticed. I love the person who showed me that.

          • The flash on my point and shoot is horrid, if you do get far enough away not to blow everything out, you can no longer see the subject. lol Thanks again. I will post before and after photos!