The prospective shaman lives in the darkness for the first years of his life.
only then s/he is allowed to experience life. in this way, s/he is encouraged to direct the introspection inside.
For Philip Ross, practicing a metaphorical endoscopy (nothing to do with the medical procedure), in this context, becomes an invitation to look inside ourselves, to visualize and re-inagining what our “inside” has to tell.
his works render this notion fairly well: they always hide something which is enclosed or which is trying to emerge from a hall-open lid or a vase.
it sis interesting that light can be interpreted as both a tool of introspection (like with Ross) as well as a mirror. A filmmaker and photographer, Curtis Wehrfritz’s latest fascination lies with Daguerrotypes. he claims “in 170 years the use of optics and their records have become the modern backbone of our recorded perception” thus, these devices are equally mimicking and mirroring the methods of perception of the human brain as well as they constitute mirrors of our experiences and our memories.
the daguerrotypes, printed on a mirror, are small and ephemeral. they combine an image and a reflection at the same time. the mirror is inextricably linked to the image that reflects it. The myth of narcissus and echo “illuminates” their inner symbolic features.
