Stills.
Light at the Edge of the World.
Artist statement:
Marty Blumen on the trail of mani stones, emblazoned with the prayer Om Mani Padme Hum, that the Dali Lama translates as “transform your impure body, speech and mind into the pure body, speech and mind of a Buddha.”, Solukhumbu, Nepal. (2010)
I have been seeking the light now for over two decades and hope you will enjoy this selection of images.
Background:
To escape the uninspiring urban landscape Brisbane offered in the 1990’s, our small group of misfit school friends scrapped together funds earned with paper runs and pocket money, borrowing our school’s climbing rope, to loiter and gain valuable lessons, into the night, at Kangaroo Point, our very own climbing mecca with slick floodlit quarry rock, situated across from the humid subtropical climate of the river city. We expanded our explorations to overgrown road-cut rocks, sandstone bridges pylons, and, endless trips on inter-urban trains to the distant wilds of the Glasshouse Mountains; a relatively underutilised and exploratory area, 60km to city's north, kept us busy. In the following years this background of exploration has continued and grown.
From bike touring through China's dramatic landscape of Yangshou, climbing at Europe's limestone walls and gorges and up North America's Yosemite Valley to crawling in Tasmania's underground caves; the wilds of the world continue to inspire me to carry a DSLR camera. In a world of handy camera phones, it’s still the best way to capture the light, at the edge of the world.
Select influencers and phantom mentors:
Deep Play by Paul Pritchard, Inner Game of Outdoor Photography by Galen Rowell. Light at the Edge of the World by Wade Davis, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman, Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chounaird, The Last Place on Earth by Nick Nichols.
Marty Blumen, March 2022.
