Barbara Mark, Ph.D. has had a camera in her hands since she was a very young child. Her first camera was a tiny toy that actually had a very tiny roll of film that could be processed. It was magical; she was more than delighted! As she grew up her interest grew and her focus was on macro photography. She loved being able to get up close to a four-leaf clover or a tiny flower. Her cameras became more sophisticated and her subjects more varied. Life continued and she pursued her education, eventually getting her doctorate in clinical psychology. As she also worked to pay for her education, photography got put on a back burner although she did take photography classes. Now some decades and a career later, in semi-retirement, photography is back on the front burner and she has returned to her love of macro photography with the addition of a deep love of abstract imagery. Macro photography excites her imagination. Her desire to capture the beauty of usually unseen parts of flowers and plants in an unseen and intimate way invites her to see the infinite colors, textures and patterns that nature has to offer. To photograph flowers and plants in this way is for her to be in prayer, to be in communion with the beauty of mother nature. She finds it nurturing and peaceful as she sits with a plant for a period of time and look for the way it wants to express itself. Each of the resulting images feels like a gift to her. Art is a storytelling that the creator starts and the observer continues. Photography is for Barbara an experience of the sacred, nature is her sanctuary. The numinous is all around us. It becomes meaningful when we invest it with meaning, when we make our own magic. We might see beauty in our peripheral vision but it can easily escape us if we don’t turn our attention toward it. She sees beauty in her own way and doesn’t seek to control or interpret the experience of another. She seeks simply to provide a potential stimulus, an invitation.
