“Mel Alexenberg offers a scintillating experiment in
creativity. His work is an invitation to
deepen your spiritual sensibilities as you extend your imagination. An interesting and relevant approach to spiritual
practice and creative expression.” - Jan Phillips, author of God Is
at Eye Level: Photography as a Healing Art and Finding the On-Ramp to
Your Spiritual Path: A Roadmap to Joy and Rejuvenation
"Photograph God is so inspiring on many levels. I really enjoyed it because it gives us an
amazing perspective on our own existence, especially in the age of the
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
“Photograph God strikes a balance between Kabbalah
and contemporary culture. It is replete with imagery from both universes. It is literate, wise, and easily accessible. Alexenberg offers us an elegant and devout
example of an evolved Jewish Weltanschauung.
Make no mistake; this is a serious contribution to contemporary
neo-kabbalah.” - Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author of Kabbalah: A Love Story and God
Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and
Ultimate Meaning, Scholar-in-Residence
at Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco
“In his sophisticated and highly literate book, Prof.
Alexenberg weaves in a playful way the threads between contemporary digital
culture and traditional Jewish wisdom. In an original way, he invites us to
connect the networked world of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, WhatsApp
and Blogspot, with the concept of the unseen God. Using the metaphor of the camera, he provides
interesting and surprising intersections between new-media culture and
theological issues.” - Dr. Yael Eylat
Van-Essen, author of Digital Culture: Virtuality, Society and Information,
teaches new media at Tel Aviv University and Holon Institute of Technology,
Israel
“Whether we see this book as a book of art – a mystical
computer program for spiritual seeing – or a book about art – to actually see
it, we must consult the beautiful blog at
http://bibleblogyourlife.blogspot.com
Mel Alexenberg is a wonderfully accomplished worker on a great project:
to make art a conduit for the Divine. In
this book he nourishes us with a generous sampling, and leaves us hungry for a
full conspectus, of his work, thought and life.” - Rabbi Dr. Shimon
Cowen, Director, Institute for Judaism and Civilization, Victoria, Australia
"There are many parallels in Christian thought and deed that
should allow this excellent book to resonate with many people of faith. When I
picked up Prof. Alexenberg's book, I happened to be reading a spiritual guide
on contemplative prayer by an anonymous 14th century Christian mystic whose
words find a parallel in Alexenberg's exhortation to seek the Divine out in the
world in all that you see and photograph, and with love. He has succeeded in creating a program for
photographers, on a daily basis, to explicitly weave their faith into their art
and ultimately, back into their worldview with a fresh perspective." - Bob Weil, co-author of The Art
of iPhone Photography: Creating Great Photos and Art on Your iPhone
“Alexenberg proposes that text and image—something as simple
as photos taken with a smart phone, and multiplied in their resonance by the
internet—can be used as a consciousness raising tool, at once personal and
collective. With such simple means, we can attune ourselves to the sacred
dimensions of our lives from moment to moment. In fresh, clear language, he
brings his detailed knowledge of Torah texts and what he calls "the
down-to-earth mysticism of the kabbalah" to bear on daily life, showing
how the annual round of sacred readings from that spiraling scroll provides
prompts for deepening our personal and artistic practice.” - Peter Samis, Associate Curator, Interpretation, San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art
