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A metaphor for the conflict between rationality and emotion; betweeen Apollo and Dionysus; between the empirical and the supernatural; between stasis and revolution...
A photograph of an abandoned coal-mining facility in southern Illinois, autumn 1985.
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Image from a thirteen - photograph installation entitled Beyond Reason, 2006.
Photograph of a Roman mosaic within the Capitolene Museum, Rome, 2002.
Portrait of Susan Touchstone, c.1986
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from the series: Beyond Reason, 2006
(Usher in his library)
Where the rational and the supernatural collide.
Greetings, Earthlings...
Welcome to Beyond the Limits of Reason, the meeting point for all things Michael Doubrava.
Michael Doubrava profile
- michaeldoubrava
- I was born on Earth during the second half of the twentieth century.
Untitled (San Lorenzo, New Mexico)
A metaphor for the conflict between rationality and emotion; betweeen Apollo and Dionysus; between the empirical and the supernatural; between stasis and revolution...
our motto and mission is to
tickle the idiot
rapture the faithful
pity all the ignorant and hateful
illuminate the enlightened
confound the intellectual
with life distilled flood memory's temple
Welcome to Beyond the Limits of Reason
From these images of oxidized silver, these metallic ashes -
like a phoenix, or an alchemical creation -
new forms and new life will arise.
like a phoenix, or an alchemical creation -
new forms and new life will arise.
My desire is to restore our lost sense of enchantment with the mysterious side of existence, via the creation of images which express and possess a dark, radiating beauty that optically stimulates, emotionally intoxicates, and psychologically fascinates.
Each photograph is a fulcrum, a balance point, within a moment or lifespan, for the first, last, and every, time.
The Road of Trials
"Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials..."
from The Hero With a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
from The Hero With a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
As Andre Breton reminds us:
"...The psyche extends beyond the limits of the body..."
"...unite the self with the world..."
from Paul Bowles essay, "The Baptism of Solitude":
"The Absolute has no price."
from Richard Ellmann's 1987 biography,"Oscar Wilde"...
"...Rebelliousness and extravagance are needed if society's molds are to be broken, as broken they must be. Art is by nature dissident."
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Herbert A Wise & Phyllis Fraser, introducing Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (1943)
"As the great civilizations arose, the old fears were not lost."
John F. Walte, photographer and digital artist, tells us that
"We have traded the beauty of magic for the insanity of mathematics."
The first sentence of Arthur Machen's short story "The White People:
"Sorcery and sanctity," said Ambrose, "these are the only realities. Each is an ecstasy, a withdrawal from the common life".
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Welcome, Visitor, to Beyond the Limits of Reason...
Who so ever
shall enter
this internet space
will find
growing within
a desire
to transcend
with grace
shall enter
this internet space
will find
growing within
a desire
to transcend
with grace
these are depictions of a Greater Reality beyond the visible world...
From these images of oxidized silver, from these metallic ashes - like a phoenix, like an alchemical creation - new forms and new life will arise.
Film director, actor, writer, magician, and painter Orson Welles knew that
"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations."
Jack White, musician, has this insight for us...
"Technology is a big destroyer of emotion and truth: technology doesn't do anything for creativity. Yeah, it makes it easier and you get home sooner, but it doesn't make you a more creative person. That's the disease you have to fight in any creative field: ease-of-use."
from The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene, one of this website's favorite authors...
"...There is a Syrian poet who wrote, 'Of two hearts one is always warm and one is always cold: the cold heart is more precious than diamonds, the warm heart has no value and is thrown away..."
James Moeller, songwriter, here describes Mr.Doubrava's persona and working method
"And the Man behind the camera? I think he's not a man at all. No he's the Black Raven himself. A dark, desiccated old crow softly croaking "Nevermore," as he snaps away with his little black box image conjurer."
In the words of photographer Karl-Heinz Dukstein:
"The Child is a genius, (he) always made work that probed the inner conciousness."
Websites to Visit outside the confines of the Empirical: click here to travel beyond "Beyond"
In the words of Joseph Campbell, from his essay collection "Myths to Live By":
"...The recognition of mortality and the requirement to transcend it is the initial impulse toward mythology..."
Arthur Machen, Wales' greatest author of supernatural literature, states that:
'chthonic', as defined by the Oxford Dictionary:
"CHTHONIC: adjective. Concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld. Origin: late 19th century, from greek KHTHON-'earth' + ic."
Dear Reader, Mr.Doubrava has a question for you:
"Are you an Ape, or are you a Baboon? A Starfish - or, God forbid - are you a Lamprey?"
From Paul Bowles' novel "The Sheltering Sky":
"A black star appears, a point of darkness in the night sky's clarity. Point of darkness and gateway to repose. Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose."
'gnosis', defined by Wikipedia:
"Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge (in the nominative case γνῶσις f.). In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies 'spiritual knowledge' in the sense of mystical enlightenment."
Joseph Campbell tells us that
"The ultimate mystery is beyond all categories of thought."
'entropy', as defined by Merriam-Webster:
ENTROPY 1
"A measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system that is also usually considered to be a measure of the system's disorder... broadly : the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system"
2
"a : the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity b : a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder"
Albert Einstein believed that
"If your idea is not at first absurd, there is no hope for it."
From Michael Michalko's book "Creative Thinkering":
"The key to creatively generating associations and connections between dissimilar subjects is called conceptual blending. This is a creative-thinking process that involves blending two or more concepts in the same mental space to form new ideas...Creativity in all domains, including science, technology, medicine, the arts, and everyday living, emerges from the basic mental operation of conceptually blending dissimilar subjects. When analyzed, creative ideas are always new combinations of old ideas. A poet does not generally make up new words but instead puts together old words in a new way."
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Andre Breton states that:
"Everyday reality is structured by desire and love."
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In the words of the Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski [1927-2009], Metaphysical Horror, 2001:
"The human need for religion cannot be excommunicated from culture by rationalist incantation. Human beings do not live by reason alone. Life is more complex than rationalism allows. Reason has its limits and can never displace the deeper level of engagement with reality that is the essence of religious belief and practice. The rationalist lives in an impoverished, restricted world, defined by what reason alone can prove. Yet beyond those restrictions lies a whole new vibrant world awaiting discovery and disclosure. It does not defy or contradict reason; it simply lies beyond its scope."
The Usher Experiment
Dear Viewer, anyone who has visited my profile will no doubt be aware of my great love for the short story The Fall of the House of Usher by the incomparable Edgar Allan Poe. I have decided to conduct an experiment wherein I shall combine certain photographs from my vast collection of images alongside excerpts from Poe's macabre story.
Image One: The House of Usher
A photograph of an abandoned coal-mining facility in southern Illinois, autumn 1985.
Excerpt One: The House of Usher
"During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppresively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was; but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit."
The Dissipated Roderick Usher
Image from a thirteen - photograph installation entitled Beyond Reason, 2006.
Excerpt Two: The Dissipated Roderick Usher
"...Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last meeting...I gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet the character of his face had been at all times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve...The now gasthly pallor the skin, and the now miraculous luster of the eye, above all things startled and even awed me..."
The Spirit of the House
Photograph of a Roman mosaic within the Capitolene Museum, Rome, 2002.
Excerpt Three: The Spirit of the House
"I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and equivocal hints, another singular feature of his mental condition. He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth...an influence which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion, had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit- an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about the morale of his existence..."
The Lady Madeline
Portrait of Susan Touchstone, c.1986
Excerpt Four: The Lady Madeline
"He admitted, however...that much of the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more natural and far more palpable origin-to the severe and long-continued illness-indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution-of a tenderly beloved sister, his sole companion for long years, his last and only relative on earth...While he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared...Hitherto she had steadily borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herself finally to bed; but on the closing in of the evening of my arrival at the house, she succumbed...to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus probably be the last I should obtain-that the lady, at least while living, would be seen by me no more."
He Became That Which He Read
from the series: Beyond Reason, 2006
Excerpt Five: He Became That Which He Read
"Our books-the books which, for years, had formed no small portion of the mental existence of the invalid-were, as might be supposed, in strict keeping with this character of phantasm...His chief delight, however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and curious book in quarto Gothic-the manual of a forgotten church- the "Vigiliae Mortuorum secundum Chorum Ecclesiae Maguntinae"...I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and of its probable influence upon the hypochondriac..."
The Librarian
(Usher in his library)
to be continued...
Untitled (flaming peach)
"Sell your certainty; purchase bewilderment." Paul Bowles
That which lives on Reason alone lives against the Spirit.
free offer to all valued vistors, our promise to serve you with true hearts
monkey-back guaranteed if not holy
satisfied...
All images copyright Michael Doubrava, 2009.
All Rights Reserved. All images are the copyrighted property of Michael Doubrava. These images may not be used without the express consent of Michael Doubrava.