Fotokalender für 2013 ist da!

Da es letztes Jahr so schönes Feeback und entsprechende Nachfrage gab, gibt es auch dieses Jahr wieder einen Fotokalender mit Bildern von CAPTURE THE SILENCE.

Die ersten 10 Exemplare des diesjährigen Kalender 2013 sind letzte Woche aus dem Druck gekommen und warten auf freudige Empfänger. Bei entsprechender Nachfrage lasse ich nachdrucken. Insgesamt wird die Auflage sehr klein, mehr als 30 Stück werden nicht gedruckt. Die Kalender lasse ich in Kleinstauflage bei fotobuch.de drucken, wodurch die Produktionskosten recht hoch sind.

Dafür habe ich sehr gute Erfahrungen hinsichtlich Qualität gemacht. Dieses Jahr habe ich mich für ein glattes Papier - fomanu pure - entschieden. Die Resultate sind fantastisch...

Hier ein paar Details zum Kalender:

• DIN A3 Querformat
• Papierstärke 250g/m² , fomanu pure 
• Glatte, hochgradig weiße Oberfläche für höchste Farbsättigung
• Doppelte Spiralbindung, Metall weiß
• 1 Titelblatt + 1 transparentes Deckblatt
• 12 Kalenderblätter + 1 Rückkarton + 1 Indexseite
• Kalendarium von Januar- Dezember 2013, in Deutsch 

Preis  34 €  – wer Interesse hat, schreibt mir bitte eine Email. 

Ich wünsche euch eine angenehme, möglichst stressfreie und schöne Vorweihnachtszeit!

Euer Sven

Raw Dharma by Venerable Boep Ung Sunim

Some weeks ago I was staying at the Munich Zen Center which is led by my good friend and teacher Hyon Gak Sunim. We were having a one week Yoga retreat with our beloved Yoga Teacher Kristina Karitinou-Irleand from Greece and many people from three different countries. Unfortunately I caught a flew and could not attend the whole thing that I helped to organize and run. When sick just be sick. Doing Yoga while having a flew was very interesting but finaly my body needed to rest and I completly gave myself to this: just resting and being sick for some days. Great practice anyway. We had a intense time with many insights and teachings. One teaching I want to share with you. It came from Beop Ung Sunim, a Korean Zen monk and Dharma brother of Hyon Gak Sunim, who was also visiting the Munich Zen Center during the time of the Yoga Retreat.

​Boep Ung Sunim has been a monk in the Korean Chogye Order for over 30 years now. Sunim dedicated his life entirely to Zen practice. 30 years of sitting Zen in the Zen rooms of Korea. Right before coming to Munich he finshed another Kyol Che (3-month intensive retreat) that he spent in the hermitage of Mang Gong Sunim, the great Zen Master and Grand-Teacher of Zen Master Seung Sahn. The hermitage belongs to Su Dok Sah temple. 

Sunim is a silent man, but he is feared by many monks and respect by the Korean Zen community, that chose him over and over again to be the Head Monk (the leader of the Zen hall during retreat) in various Kyol Ches. Several seasons he was the Head Monk in such elite places such as Bong Am Sah. Many of these 3-month retreats, where he functioned as a Head Monk, he would remain seated in an upright position, not lying down to sleep. I was told that on his monks kasa one can read the Chinese letters "Teacher of the Chogye Order", the highest rank for a monk (according to monk age) and when I asked him about these chinese letters on his kasa, he humbly commented: "What does that actually mean "Teacher of the Chogye Order"? A dog is a teacher of the Chogye Order too!" ... Hahaha!

This time is the 3rd time that I met and spent time with him – a rare and precious meeting with a Dharma gem. On the first evening he told us a story, that really hit me deeply and thats what I want to share that with you:

During the New Years Festival (one of the holiest events in Korea) in the temple, a young monk approached Boep Ung Sunim with a question. The young monk was very smart and the question was very sophisticated and intellectual. He asked something about Buddhas teaching, sentient beings, suffering and so on.

Boep Ung Sunim listened carefully and when the young monk finally finished, he answered as follows, "I don't understand your intellectual question at all. But anyway… Don't you get it? … WE ARE ALL FUCKED!!!"  Than he turned around and walked away.

The young monk stood there with his moth wide open and couldn't say anything.

When I heard that, I laughed out loud and could not stop for the rest of the evening, everytime I remembered this story. I could only bow to him and thank him for that teaching. What could possibly be added to this? I deeply thank my friend Hyon Gak Sunim for bringing such Dharma Gems like Boep Ung Sunim to us in the West, so we can get a taste of this precious, direct and raw expression of the GREAT QUESTION:

What am I?

...

One Object – Learning to shoot film with DSLR

One Object – Flower from Sven Mahr on Vimeo.

Last week I got deeper into the details of shooting film with DSLR. This is another result from learning by doing it. Enjoy and let me know your thoughts about it. Thx.

Kalender CAPTURE THE SILENCE 2012

Braucht Ihr noch ein indiviuelles, künstlerisch ansprechendes und extrem limitiertes Weihnachtsgeschenk, einen Neujahrsgruß oder ein paar schicke Fotos für was weiß ich wo?

Für alle Fans meiner Fotos habe ich einen CAPTURE THE SILENCE Kalender für 2012 gemacht. Letztes Jahr hatte ich ein paar Kalender mit Fotos von Rom verschenkt und die kamen so gut an, dass ich nachbestellen musste. Deshalb habe ich das dieses Jahr wiederholt und möchte die Kalender nun keinem vorenthalten. Die ersten Exemplare des diesjährigen Kalender 2012 gingen heute in den Druck. 

Details zum Kalender:

• DIN A3 Querformat
• Papierstärke 250g/m² 
• Hochgradig weiße Oberfläche für höchste Farbsättigung
• Doppelte Spiralbindung, Metall weiß
• 1 Titelblatt + 1 transparentes Deckblatt
• 12 Kalenderblätter + 1 Rückkarton + 1 Indexseite
• Kalendermonate in 3 Sprachen

Wem der Kalender gefällt, der kann gerne einen bei mir kaufen – solange der Vorrat eben reicht. Ob eine Nachbestellung bis vor Weihnachten noch klappt, müsste man abwarten. Ich geb dann hier noch mal Bescheid.

Da ich ja keine Massen produzieren lasse, kostet mich der Kalender in der Herstellung schon ca. 18,90€. Deshalb schlage ich mal folgenden Preis vor – wer mehr zahlen will, darf das gerne tun :-) 

Preis: 27,90 € 

Am einfachsten ist es sicher für mein Freunde & Bekannte im Raum Dresden, die kriegen vielleicht sogar noch ein Tee und Plätzchen, wenn sie sich einen Kalender abholen wollen. Sollte jemand dabei sein, der es sich per Post schicken lassen will, der müsste noch ca. 5 € Versand (DHL Deutschland) einkalkulieren. 

Also falls jemand Interesse hat, dann schreibt mir auf jeden Fall eine Email. 

Die Kalender lasse ich bei fotobuch.de drucken. Damit habe ich letztes Jahr gute Erfahrungen gemacht. Ich habe mich wieder für fomanu fine entschieden.

Ich wünsche euch eine angenehme, möglichst stressfreie, schöne Vorweihnachtszeit!
Euer Sven

Toys are boys best friend

Recently I was happy to visit friends of mine in Berlin. Their little boy "Julez" has some really cool toys and a father who is a very skilled designer. That paper robot is just amazing! So for the second time I became amazed what wonderful scenerie this childs room offered for making photos: Three batmans facing a fight with Master Joda or being after arobot or a squirrel... Rude guys. Enjoy the photos!

 

 

Winter in Dresden

You can find the photos in the DRESDEN album in PHOTOS here

Window to Louisenstrasse...

This photos had been taken during this year. Always from the window of my room. In the morning, at night and during the day with no concept actually except the similar perspective. Just natural coming & going, like the rain, the sun, the snow... changing, changing, always changing. But THAT what is seeing all this... did it ever change, does it ever change? Don't know. Enjoy life!

Misty Fall 2010

Let there be light and colors and lets call it Fall! In Dresden we had a extremely colorful and bright falll this year. With friends we went to Pillnitz near Dresden and walked a trail along the yineyards on the hills of Pillnitz. The light was just amazing and so this photos appeared. Enjoy! You can find the photos here.

Zen & Jeff Wall's pine in the yard

My Master's thesis in art-history was about the artist Bill Viola and Zen. Looking at Bill Violas art work for some years there always was... something. I didn't know what it was back then, but later through my own meditation experience and knowledge about Buddhism it became more clear. Even while the spiritual aspect of Violas work is well discussed in the science literature, most art-historians encounter his work from a Christianity kind of perspective. What is ok but not enough. Most of the European Western art that we discussed at the University was based on Christianity. But in Violas case – and as I know now in the case of many other contemporary artists – looking at Buddhism and especially Zen can enlighten the work of many artist which are connected with this Eastern spirituality. Bill Viola will not be the subject for today's article instead I would like to show another artist who maybe doesn't know Zen, but who made a piece that connects very well with Zen.

It is a photo called "Pine tree on the Corner" by artist Jeff Wall (transparency in lightbox, 1990, 119 x 149cm, photographed in Vancouver Canada). The photo shows alarge tree in the frontyard of a house at the corner of the street. A quiet impressive kind of tree that can hardly be overseen, right?

So what is it that connects that photo with Zen? Some Zen students maybe already understand: in the Zen tradition there are kongans (click if you need to know more) and mostly these kongans ("public cases") are telling us stories about a dialog between an ancient Zen Master and his student were mostly the student has a question and the teacher is answering in a way that the student can have a direct experience.

Kongans are not riddles or something that can be figured out with thinking - it is pointing back to the mind of the questioner. So every Zen student knows this famous kongan:

Mumonkan (case 37): A monk asked Zen Master Jōshū: “Why did Bodhidharma came from the West?”. Jōshū answered “The tree in the courtyard”.

For those who doesn't know the tradition little explanation is maybe necessary: Bodhidharma is the founder of the Zen school of Buddhism. He was a meditation monk who came from India (in the West) to China (in the East). So the question asked by this monk means kind of "Why did happen what did happen?" or "What is the meaning of all this?" or"What is the truth?". The answer of the Zen Master just points to this very moment, what is truth. This tree can hardly be overseen. If you have any thinking about what is the truth (because maybe you studied philosophy so long that you already forgot how simple it is) ... then the tree will help you and becomes your teacher. If Jeff Wall would be asked this kongan he might already understand: yes, the tree in the frontyard! No space for any useless speculation, interpretation or conceptual thinking.

Telling this here occurred to me just because we have currently an exhibition of Jeff Wall going on in Dresden in the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Many years ago I saw Jeff Wall's "Pine tree on the Corner" in an exhibition in Dresden. This time I missed it.