Portfolio: David Ulrich

Can my inner work towards stillness and consciousness be reflected in images? Perhaps the moments of presence I, at times, experience can be extended outward to you, the viewer.

David Ulrich: Photographs 1970-2015

In 1970, as a young college student, I witnessed and documented the events surrounding the deaths of four students from National Guardsmen’s bullets at Kent State. This had a profound impact on me and represented a turning point in my way of thinking. I began to view the arts as an alternative to the alienation and violence in our society and as a personal and collective means toward a renewal of humanistic values. This is the ultimate paradox of the creative process; that the deeper we strive to penetrate within ourselves, the more we reach a common ground of shared human concerns.

Throughout multiple decades of image-making, I’ve worked on a diverse set of photographic projects, many of them topical and addressing social, political, or environmental realities. However, the single underlying thread that persists throughout different bodies of work is my interest in the livingness of the land and its relationship to human presence. It is my belief that attention begets attention. Can my inner work towards stillness and consciousness be reflected in images? Perhaps the moments of presence I, at times, experience can be extended outward to you, the viewer. It is my sincere wish that these images may touch and nourish your own inward search for an expanded, lucent awareness.♦

David Ulrich is a professor at Pacific New Media, University of Hawai‘i Mānoa in Honolulu. He is an active photographer and writer whose work has been published in numerous books and journals. Ulrich`s photographs have been exhibited internationally in over 75 one person and group exhibitions. He is the author of The Widening Stream: the Seven Stages of Creativity and a consulting editor to Parabola

Website: www.creativeguide.com

Blog: www.theslenderthread.org

 

By David Ulrich

David Ulrich is a photographer and writer who teaches at the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa, and a Consulting Editor to Parabola. His photographs have been exhibited internationally, and he is the author several books. His newest book, Zen Camera is forthcoming in Spring 2018. Information about him and his work can be found at www.creativeguide.com.