photograph god

"Photograph God: Creating a Spiritual Blog of Your Life" is a book by Mel Alexenberg that explores links between smartphones, selfies, social media, and spirituality. It develops tools for creatively photographing God as divine light reflected from every facet of life. It teaches how to weave these photos of God into a blog that draws on the wisdom of kabbalah in a networked world to craft a vibrant dialogue between the blogger’s story and the biblical narrative.

11 July 2006

Splendor/Hod as the Echo of a Kiss

Yael Kenan sees hod as the glorious feeling of young lovers kissing. She photographed the shadow of the event to reveal the link between the Hebrew word hod (splendor) and hed (echo). Yael perceives the shadow as a visual equivalent of an echo in sound.

02 July 2006

Teaching/Learning as Foundation/Yesod

Michal Hadari photographed a father learning Torah with his son. He is building a foundation for successfully transmitting Jewish values from generation to generation assuring a splendid future. The biblical injunction “to diligently teach your children” forms a central part of the daily liturgy. Foundation/yesod integrates the attributes of success/continuity/eternity/netzach with splendor/hod.

Avian Splendor/Hod

Esti Lazarovich Shachaf sees splendor/hod as the metamorphosis of a strange-looking earthbound creature with stubby feathers into a magnificent bird in flight. Scroll down to “Avian Strength/Gevurah” and see the same parrot in the first moments of its life.

Hesed on Her Wedding Day

Sharon Vaserman sees compassion/hesed as the divine loving kindness bestowed upon a bride on her wedding day. Sharon feels hesed saturating the wedding with all the good in the world coming together to forge a bond of love between bride and groom as they become one.

Success from a Lizard's Viewpoint

The multifaceted meanings of the Hebrew word "netzach” are related to success and victory, conducting and orchestration, continuity and eternity. Mor Perry photographed a lizard’s success in catching its lunch.

01 July 2006

Netzach as Continuity

Merav Razon sees the birth of a child in the modern State of Israel as an expression of netzach. It is a divine event attesting to the continuity of the Jewish People despite millennia of bitter exile. The prophet Isaiah links the words “from generation to generation for all eternity (l’netzach netzachim)” to the joyous return to their homeland “coming to Zion with glad song, with eternal gladness.”

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PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

“Mel Alexenberg offers a scintillating experiment in creativity. His work is an invitation to deepen your spiritual sensibilities as you extend your imagination.” - Jan Phillips, author of God Is at Eye Level: Photography as a Healing Art

“One of art’s most complete and compelling integrations of the sacred and profane. It reads like a swift and soulful breeze.” - Dr. Shaun McNiff, author of Earth Angels: Engaging the Sacred in Everyday Things, University Professor, Lesley University, Cambridge

“Thinks brilliantly outside the box. It crisscrosses disciplines, from science and technology to philosophy and mysticism to art as both historical and creative phenomena. This is one of those books that other thinkers will wish they had somehow thought about how to write, and to which readers of diverse sorts will simply respond by saying: wow!” - Dr. Ori Z. Soltes, author of Tradition and Transformation, Professorial Lecturer, Georgetown University

“Photograph God strikes a balance between Kabbalah and contemporary culture. It is literate, wise, and easily accessible.” - Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author of God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning and Kabbalah: A Love Story

“There are many parallels in Christian thought and deed that should allow this excellent book to resonate with many people of faith.” - Bob Weil, co-author of The Art of iPhone Photography

"Photograph God gives us an amazing perspective on our own existence, especially in the age of interconnected iPhone culture." - Prof. Michael Bielicky, Head of Department of Digital Media/Postdigital Narratives, University of Art and Design/ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe

“A mystical computer program for spiritual seeing.” - Rabbi Dr. Shimon Cowen, Director, Institute for Judaism and Civilization, Australia

"In an original way, Prof. Alexenberg invites us to connect the networked world of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, WhatsApp and Blogspot, with the concept of the unseen God." - Dr. Yael Eylat Van-Essen, author of Digital Culture: Virtuality, Society and Information, teaches at Tel Aviv University and Holon Institute of Technology, Israel

"Alexenberg proposes that text and image - something as simple as photos taken with a smartphone, and multiplied in their resonance by the Internet - can be a consciousness raising tool" - Peter Samis, Associate Curator, Interpretation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

"I can feel your joy, warmth and good humor in your images."- Julie DuBose, author of Effortless Beauty: Photography as an Expression of Eye, Mind and Heart

"The book's wonderful synthesis between spirituality and technology, heaven and earth, is exciting and thought-provoking. Photograph God is a practical demonstration of Solomon's wisdom: 'Acknowledge God in all your paths'" - Rabbi Chanan Morrison, author of Gold from the Land of Israel

"Alexenberg locates art in the realm of personal experience and creative expression at a time when art education is falling under the jurisdiction of more singular bureaucratic prescriptions.... A valuable addition to the literature of art education.” – Dr. Jerome J. Hausman, author of Arts and the Schools, former Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and World Council member, International Society for Education through Art

"Alexenberg is "tov ro'i," "goodly of vision." He sees godliness and goodliness in even the most mundane, and instructs others to behold that vision. We are blessed to have such a wise teacher in our midst." - Rabbi Bezalel Naor, author of A Kabbalist’s Diary and The Limit of Intellectual Freedom: The Letters of Rav Kook, former head of institutes of higher Jewish learning in United States and Israel.

"Photograph God is an intellectually exciting book that stimulates the sensory palate. Dr. Alexenberg shares in-depth, meaningful insights about encountering God in the creative process through photography. Using photography as the vehicle, we are guided, one idea at a time, to an understanding of what the author means by, ’looking up, looking out, and looking inward.'"- T. Mandel Chenoweth, Head of the Art Education Department, Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma