Don’t Shoot the Buddha – Buddha Photograph explained

The Buddha image in standing repose, perhaps awaiting the moment of Buddha photography? This image of Buddha can exist only because a transformation was anticipated, camera and technique ready, and the moment decisive. Everyone was leaving, it was the end of the day. The building was going to be removed from the site. This was the end of an era.

The light was changing. I was seeing the scene shifting into a relationship of background and the Buddha, inside and the outside, interior lighting and the natural late afternoon sun dappling the exterior gardens.

Light is morphic; it changes and is at the same time, transformative. The appearance of the Buddha and the background were shifting.

In order to make a one time only shot, a photographer must be prepared, have technique well in hand, have camera well in hand, see the moment before it becomes the now, and be in the moment when it is then present. I seized the moment, got off one useful frame, and then it passed.

The Building is gone, demolished.
The light has flowed and morphed, and moved on through space/time.
A singular photograph remains.

Taken on an older Nikon FE2 with a 50mm 1.4 MF lens, on Kodak Tmax 3200 film, developed in Kodak D76, scanned on a Nikon LS4000, and printed (most recently) on Somerset Velvet with an Ultrachrome inkset on an Epson 3800.

Many of my images are not available as prints, but this one is.  –  It is one of my most popular images.   Ordering can be done through this page.

Thanks for looking,

Ken Storch

Written by a friend of a friend:

“Once I saw a bouddhua in the clouds with children on him.”

It’s not uncommon for people to misspell it as Budda, Bhudda, Buddhas, and Buddah, so the misspelling above can be overlooked, epsecially since the image evoked is so good.

Cheers.