Passengers

I was on an autumnal mountain walk when I made the first photograph of this series. On the way down suddenly a small wood glade appeared and prompted me to stop. I asked my family to stand in this special place one after the other looking up.

The image of my son is my favorite. He seems comfortable in that space yet strangely distant. This brings up the thought that we as humans travel around in our physical shell with our spirit and soul like passengers. At times when I happen to look into the mirror I feel a little taken aback. My mind elsewhere, I observe myself and think: “Oh yeah, that’s me.” – Like a passenger in my body.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the French Jesuit, theologist and natural scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin described it this way: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

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