Beyond Zero

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1985–1999

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I had always imagined that it was I who looked upon the world. That the eye reached out towards things, and that the world, in its infinite variety, waited to be seen.

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Then something began to change.

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During these years I became captivated by the non-dual teachings of Advaita Vedanta, and later encountered Jean Klein, whose presence and teaching opened a door into Being. What I had understood as the act of looking seemed, at times, to reverse itself. That which called for my attention appeared already to be looking at me.

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It was an extraordinary discovery. The world was no longer simply an object of perception, nor was I quite the observer I had taken myself to be. There was a strange intimacy in this reversal, a sense of recognition that preceded thought.

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Yet such openings illuminated more than I had imagined.

The mind with its endless inventions, the body carrying its ancient fears, the small, tenacious fiction of someone separate from the world — all began to reveal themselves within this new light. What had once seemed solid became uncertain. What had remained hidden began to find its voice.

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I photographed within this unfolding. The human figure, the exposed body, the desolate shore, the brief astonishment of light. I was drawn towards those moments when appearances seemed unable to contain what lay beneath them.

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There was longing, bewilderment, and an extraordinary sense of discovery. And there were moments of inexplicable beauty, when nothing needed to be understood.

Beyond Zero emerged from those years of enquiry. Not as an account of something attained, but as fragments gathered at the threshold of the known.

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The world was still there.

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Only the certainty of who was looking had begun to disappear.