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Photography and Spiritual Formation (10)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (10)

Most YouTube photography channels tend to talk about camera equipment, composition, and tools and tricks for post-production. All those are really useful, especially if you’re trying to learn how to take good photographs or wanting advice on buying kit, but they often don’t connect with the reason you might be doing photography or how it might impact on yourself and other people. (more…)

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Comics and Climate

A while ago, Upshot Studios/AWA produced an excellent series of stories from the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic (see: COVID Comics). Over the past few months, in partnership with NBC News, they’ve been doing the same thing with grassroots stories of climate change. The stories are published online (at the link below) and will be published as a trade paperback in late November. NBC News…

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Notes from the Transhuman Frontiers

Notes from the Transhuman Frontiers

I’ve spent a bit of time today going through web links that have been archived in the “Research” folder this year. Here’s a selection of things related to various technological and transhumanist fronts. (more…)

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (9)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (9)

A shorter post today connecting back to the Photography and Spiritual Formation (6) (which focused on therapeutic purposes for photography). Several street photographers I follow on YouTube with their own reflections on photography and mental wellbeing. (more…)

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Religion and Comics: The Golem

Religion and Comics: The Golem

As well as all the angels and nephilim in comics, I’ve also been reading a number of titles based around the golem – the creature in Jewish folklore created from clay or mud who typically then becomes a helper or protector. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem Here’s a small selection of some of the graphic representations of the golem including the character who turns up in the Marvel superhero…

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Comics and Religion: Recent Reading

Comics and Religion: Recent Reading

Recently there have been a bunch of comics either engaging with religion or taking religious elements and reworking them into their stories. Here’s the list of what I’ve been reading recently. (There will be a follow-up post on Golem-related comics) (more…)

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Wellington ComicFest 2022 - Videos

Wellington ComicFest 2022 – Videos

The ComicFest 2022 event run by Wellington Libraries back in May now has interviews and sessions up on YouTube. Some good sessions there to watch. Official ComicFest 2022 website: https://www.wcl.govt.nz/comicfest/ YouTube channel for ComicFest 2022: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwXHoIEe-2TKaF_2OqReIx96Ea6tvu68Q

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (8)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (8)

In this post I want to mention a few places I’ve found online that engage with photography and spirituality. Some of these are explicitly Christian, while others have a wider sense of things spiritual. (more…)

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (7)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (7)

I follow a number of YouTube channels and people that are concerned with photography and, in particular, street photography – photography that is done typically with short focal length (say, 21-35mm) capturing slices of life in urban contexts. One good example of this is Matt Stuart’s work which is summarised in his book, Think Like a Street Photographer (2021), published by Sentanta Books. Nice…

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (6)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (6)

Related to the use of photography in spiritual formation are developments in the use of photography for therapeutic purposes. These range from the notion that doing something you might enjoy and which occupies your attention might help you be less concerned with life’s problems through to more detailed programmes of therapeutic photography. (more…)

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (5)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (5)

While flicking through the Tate Modern’s YouTube channel “Finding Photography” this title caught my eye. Certainly the idea of photography as therapy and spiritual discipline is on my mind all the time. Martin Parr – ‘Photography as Therapy’ (TateShots, 2017)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlKrnYWXEK8

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 25 years on

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 25 years on

I came lately to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) when I started watching it on DVD while preparing material for the Bible in Popular Culture course back in 2009-2010. Somehow, I missed its arrival on television here in the early 2000s, had no idea there was an original film back in 2002, and sort of knew there was a spin-off series called Angel (1999-2004). Watching it after the fact, and…

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (4)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (4)

There are many things I like about photography but among those things is a fascination with symmetry, perspective, and geometry. It’s probably why I tend to photograph things in an urban settings (Sallie McFague’s “second nature”), rather than in a more natural setting like landscapes, forest and bush, the back garden (“first nature”), or photographing people. There are more angles and converging…

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (3)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (3)

In the first post in this series (Photography and Spiritual Formation (1)) I mentioned Andrew Norton’s influence on my thinking about photography. Alongside Andrew, Eileen Crowley’s work on photography and religious life has also been significant, including shaping some of the ways I use digital technology in my teaching. I first met Eileen at THEOCOM at Santa Clara University back in 2015 and…

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (2)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (2)

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Photography and Spiritual Formation (1)

Photography and Spiritual Formation (1)

A few years back I had the privilege of inviting the late Andrew Norton to speak to my Theology and Media class on photography and spirituality. Andrew graciously obliged and brought in a number of canvases with prints on them as well as a selection of digital photos for us to view and engage with. He talked about the ongoing process of learning to photograph scenes – particularly landscapes and…

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Comics and Mental Health and Wellness

Comics and Mental Health and Wellness

Recently, I’ve been reading a number of comics and graphic novels that deal with aspects of mental health and wellness. This is part of the wider project I’m developing on Comics, Social Change, and the Public Good which I’m hoping to work on more next year. Below I’ve listed a number of comics and graphic novels that form part of that which pick up specifically with mental health matters such as…