Fine art photographer Camila Herrera describes her search for "inner eye"

"Learning to Fly," Camila Verswyvel Herrera, gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 in.

"Photography is one of those proofs that the inner eye lives within; it is unique, it is pure, it is sacred. Photography is an approximation to this abstract." Camila Herrera


Camila Verswyvel Herrera was born in1978 in Colombia and widely recognized in Argentina where she worked as an emerging, professional black and white fine arts photographer and instructor.

She lives with her family near Morelia, Mexico.

This is an exclusive ArtTraveler contribution--"What Lives Within"--written and submitted in her second language, English.

By Camila Verswyvel Herrera

ArtTravler Guest Contributor

Discovering how a picture is a direct channel to my own self, to my own heart, to my uniqueness, has inspired my life, has opened its magical dimensions.

I used to marvel at the "powers" of my teachers, who by looking at two or three of my images, could tell exactly in what state of mind, heart or mood I was when I took them, or even further, they were able to depict the relationship of what was taken and myself.

I later understood that there, just there lies the power of art. It is a direct voice. Silent, as is sometimes necessary.

For some it is movement, for some it is colour, for some it is text, but for me, it is the inner eye.

In almost all the arts, there is a direct connection to the earth, the mother, the Pachamama. I consider it the profound root of all the arts, what gives them force.

Technology has created new languages: marvelous, crazy, fast, nurturing. They come from other roots.

It lies deep in my soul, the sorrow, the despair and desperation of how photography is cutting its direct connection to the mama earth.

We are no longer capturing light, revealing light, mastering light or living the light.

It used to be a chemical process of oxidation, conversion and fixation that forced us to comprehend nature, forced us to connect to our roots.

I feel the cut inside me.

 
The first truth is the heart, the second is the mind and the third is the product of your whole self.

Photography is one of those proofs that the inner eye lives within; it is unique, it is pure, it is sacred.

Photography is an approximation to this abstract.

***

Herrera introduced me to the first in a series of her black and white studies, this one called, "Leaning to Fly."

Herrera writes:

"The series evokes the non-materiality proper of life. It starts and ends, and in between, there is much diffusion, air, movement, non-definition and passage.

"We live in improbable and sometimes incomprehensible times.


"It is a long journey with few definite images. That is how we learn to fly, just feeling them."

Learning to Fly, photo by Camila Verswyvel Herrera

Learning to Fly, photograph by Camila Verswyvel Herrera

Learning to Fly, photograph by Camila Verswyvel Herrera

Learning to Fly, photograph by Camila Verswyvel Herrera

Learning to Fly, photograph by Camla Verswyvel Herrera

Rock on and practice peace and love.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." Jimmy Hendrix.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler(TM).


New ArtTraveler video: Take a 3 minute visual tour into the eyes of a cat and its animalist painter, Kate Morris.

Consider a walking holiday or an art travel vacation in our Andalusian mountains: a week-long mosaics or sculpture workshop. See: www.Spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.