05 May 2016

Book on Smartphones, Social Media and Spirituality for People of All Faiths




"Photograph God: Creating a Spiritual Blog of Your LIfe 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, Germany

“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    

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

“Mel Alexenberg transforms what sounds like blasphemy - "capturing" God in photographs and restricting Him to two-dimensional images - into a mystical exercise as we open our eyes to the Divinity found in our everyday lives. The book's wonderful synthesis between spirituality and technology, heaven and earth, is exciting and thought-provoking.”  - Rabbi Chanan Morrison, author of Gold from the Land of Israel

“One of art’s most complete and compelling integrations of the sacred and profane.  It reads like a swift and soulful breeze.  Mel Alexenberg shows the way to the divine via digital imagery and heightened perception of its presence in the moving face of every person, place, and thing. It reads like a swift and soulful breeze. I love every “byte” of it.”  - Dr. Shaun McNiff, author of Earth Angels: Engaging the Sacred in Everyday Things, University Professor, Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
                                                                                                                             
“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

“Thinks brilliantly outside the box.  It synthesizes the realm of the abstruse and transcendent with the realm of the concrete and immanent.  It crisscrosses disciplines, from science and technology to philosophy and mysticism to art. 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 in Theology and Fine Arts, 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

"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. Your approach, while fundamentally spiritual and fired by a kindred spark as my own passion for seeing, is a mirror of a different sort of our mutual exploration of our humanity.” - Julie DuBose, author of Effortless Beauty: Photography as an Expression of Eye, Mind and Heart,  Director, Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography, Colorado

“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.  - Dr. Yael Eylat Van-Essen, author of Digital Culture: Virtuality, Society and Information, teaches new media at Tel Aviv University and the Holon Institute of Technology, Israel

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


31 March 2016

Stimulates the Sensory Palate

"Photograph God is an intellectually exciting book that stimulates the sensory palate. Drawing from the Kabbalah and Hebrew traditions, Dr. Alexenberg shares in-depth, meaningful insights about encountering God in the creative process through photography.  There is nothing superficial about this book. 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 

03 January 2016

Thinks Brilliantly Outside the Box


“For those of us familiar with the diverse and exhilarating work of Mel Alexenberg as an artist, educator and profound thinker, this latest book offers precisely the four things we would expect. The narrative thinks brilliantly outside the box. It synthesizes the realm of the abstruse and transcendent with the realm of the concrete and immanent. It crisscrosses disciplines, from science and technology to philosophy and mysticism to art as both historical and creative phenomena. Finally, the entirety is managed in a style both accessible and inviting.  
Those with prior knowledge of any or all of the disciplines from which Alexenberg draws will smile again and again in affirmation, and those entering without prior knowledge will be thrilled to understand things that they thought might be beyond them. 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: Three Millennia of Jewish Art and Architecture, Professorial Lecturer, Georgetown University, former Director, National Jewish Museum, Washington, DC

26 November 2015

Bring Spirituality into Your Everyday Moments

Photograph God: Creating a  Spiritual Blog of Your Life                  by Mel Alexenberg


Photograph and share your life journey using digital consciousness and modern media tools. 
Astute guidance will help you capture God, bring kabbalah and spirituality into your everyday moments, and create a dialogue between biblical narrative and your personal story. 
"Best Picks for Hanukkah 2015/5776" 
One of the two top books for adults 

18 November 2015

Praise from the Worlds of Art, Photography, and Art Education


“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.  Mel Alexenberg shows the way to the divine via digital imagery and heightened perception of its presence in the moving face of every person, place, and thing.  It reads like a swift and soulful breeze.” - Dr. Shaun McNiff, author of Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go and Art Heals: How Creativity cures the Soul, University Professor, Lesley University, Cambridge

"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

“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 in Theology and Fine Arts, Georgetown University

“There are many parallels in Christian thought and deed that should allow this excellent book to resonate with many people of faith. 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 is co-author of The Art of iPhone Photography: Creating Great Photos and Art on Your iPhone

"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, Germany

"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 

"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 Depatment, Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma  
   
"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

"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

30 October 2015

Seeing Godliness and Goodliness in the Most Mundane

29 October 2015

New Book Teaches How to Spiritually Celebrate Weekdays in a Networked World



artiststory: After a Great Shabbat, What’s Next? New Book Teac...: From The Times of Israel , Oct. 28, 2015 http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/after-a-great-shabbat-whats-next-new-book-teaches-how-to-spiritu...