| A year and a half ago I escaped city life to work on organic farms in California, Argentina, and Chile. I hiked 700 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington and Oregon. Living on the land, surrounded by big trees, mountains, and animals, with my feet on soil rather than cement, I developed a more intimate understanding of plants, creatures, dirt, water, and sunshine. These experiences inspired me to create bold, visceral pictures of nature that help viewers perceive supernatural elements in the world around them. Transformed into kaleidoscopic mandalas, seemingly ordinary-looking organic objects, such as rocks, leaves, moss, clouds, spider webs, fruit, trees, and shadows take on celestial qualities. I hope that if we can glimpse elements of the divine in the physical world, then perhaps we can more easily recognize the divine nature inside each of us. |  |
Kevin Haas
A year and a half ago I escaped city life to work on organic farms in California, Argentina, and Chile. I hiked 700 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington and Oregon. Living on the land, surrounded by big trees, mountains, and animals, with my feet on soil rather than cement, I developed a more intimate understanding of plants, creatures, dirt, water, and sunshine. These experiences inspired me to create bold, visceral pictures of nature that help viewers perceive supernatural elements in the world around them. Transformed into kaleidoscopic mandalas, seemingly ordinary-looking organic objects, such as rocks, leaves, moss, clouds, spider webs, fruit, trees, and shadows take on celestial qualities. I hope that if we can glimpse elements of the divine in the physical world, then perhaps we can more easily recognize the divine nature inside each of us.
My vivid and kinetic kaleidoscopic images offer a unique and psychedelic vision of reality. Inspired by the mandalas of Tibetan Buddhist tradition, they give viewers’ nervous systems that heightened, kundalini feeling, and may be used to aid meditation or trance. Although the images may seem ridden with digital wizardry, they are simply the original photographs multiplied by four and unfolded like lotus flowers without any further manipulation.
I want others to look at the world in new ways. When making photographs, I try to see everything as if looking at it for the first time. For me, making photographs is about being present and attentive to light and potential. My Kaleidoscope Series is just one of my many projects. My portfolio includes a wide variety of different works, such as documentary, landscape, black-and-white and abstract photography. Now back in San Francisco, I have started projecting images on buildings.
