About Me in Two Statements
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see”
– Henry David Thoreau
“Seeing is not enough; you have to feel what you photograph”
– André Kertész
"The hardest thing in the world is to live only once"
– Ocean Vong
"My photographic efforts are less about making works of art and more about
experiencing works of life"
– Jean-Pierre Plé
My Artist Statement
I believe I have long had a predisposition to see deeply.
My interest in photography was sparked in my late teens in conjunction with a desire to record my annual teenage-years long-distance bicycle touring adventures. These trips culminated in 1977 with an 80-day, 5,000 mile, solo, coast-to-coast crossing of the United States (I took a rather circuitous route). On that journey, with a Nikkormat film camera, I captured such images as the wrinkled faces of West Virginia and Missouri famers, a formation of combines harvesting golden waves of gain across the Kansas prairie, the marvels of Yellowstone, and Pacific Ocean seascapes – images that reflected the daily excitement of a young adult’s discovery of America – up close and personal. Traveling at the blazing average speed of 12 mph, I had no choice but to see deeply the landscape, towns, and people on the journey from New York to California.
Today, I am an artist/photographer whose work reflects an inward exploration of self-discovery and a passion to capture those moments when the light is magical, emotive, and compels me to stop, look deeply, and to be present. Such moments are usually ephemeral, and in my quest to live as fully as possible, I appreciate their impermanence and the impermanence of everything I love. Although, I have many years of experience, I try to incorporate a “beginner’s mind” with curiosity and openness to new ways of seeing and image-making. I learned to really see and the principles of visual design from a workshop with Freeman Patterson. His belief that “a camera looks both ways” – namely the images we make reveals who we are – speaks passionately to me, and has helped me to understand the evolution of my photography. I am especially passionate about the meditative and contemplative qualities of art making, seeing and honoring flashes of perception of color, shapes, patterns, or symbols. As such, my photography is a vehicle to complement my spirit of curious discovery, pursuit of the extraordinary in the ordinary, and to welcome the gifts, whenever I experience them, of awe and wonder. Expressed another way, my photographic efforts are less about making works of art and more about experiencing works of life. I aspire for my images to speak from the heart and to allow myself to be vulnerable – because art and relationships can only fully flourish when we allow our souls to be seen.
My Personal Statement
To more deeply share with you who I am, I share with you my personal dharma practice, entitled, “My Practice Towards the Art of Living Beautifully,” first developed circa 2015, and periodically revised as I have gotten wiser. Let me say at the outset, it is very aspirational. Everyday, in one way or another, I fall short of the type of life I wish to live; but like Polaris, my hero of the night sky, my dharma practice guides me in the direction I wish my life to go.
My Practice Towards the Art of Living Beautifully
I am the architect and artist of my life.
I live, love, and create courageously, especially courage to be present, authentic, and vulnerable, and to accept with grace - imperfection, impermanence and the groundlessness of life itself.
I honor and connect with others by the practice of a wholehearted life, especially by demonstrating loving-kindness and welcoming our common humanity. I will confront prejudice, and those who seek to divide us through fear; I will meet acts of hate with acts of love.
I accept that I am tough and tender, brave and afraid, strong and struggling – all of these things, all of the time. I allow myself to hope for love and to revel in moments of connection achieved, especially with those different than me. I know that as long as I am alive, I will feel fear and experience pain, but facing my fears is lifelong training in letting go of all I needlessly cling to, and experiencing pain is the gateway to self-compassion and empathy for the struggles of others.
I aspire: to have the wisdom to cherish every day as a gift and to see each day as a journey, with the journey itself my home; to appreciate the many, often unexpected, small gifts I receive each day; to see life not as a problem to be solved but as a mystery to be explored and savored with joy, wonder, awe, and curiosity; to embrace that I am enough; to acknowledge that the quality of my life depends on my velocity of being – my awareness of all the conditions of happiness that are already available to me right now; to learn to just be; and to live a life well photographed by seeing deeply and making images that feed my soul.
I aim to age with exuberance by embracing bodily pain as a gift of living to an older age; spending time with both friends and children, the latter because they are a source of limitless curiosity and imagination; going for walks; and saying “yes” to new experiences.
Though I know that every day I will fall short, I commit to doing my part to create a beloved community by cultivating joy, practicing peace, and living from a place of abundance, acceptance, forgiveness, grace, gratitude, and humility. I also commit to view my struggles as a wellspring of hope, and to allow fear and vulnerability inspire me to be courageous.
And through it all, to have dared greatly and to have practiced the art of living beautifully before I die.
Jean-Pierre Plé
I thank the following for their inspiration: Sam Abell, Matsuo Basho, Tara Brach, Brené Brown, Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Dalai, Thich Nhat Hanh, André Kertész, Jack Kornfield, John Lewis, Mary Oliver, Kim Manley Ort, Maria Popover, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry David Thoreau, and Desmond Tutu.