Spirited Woman Blogger Team

Joyce Tenneson’s Photographs Attune Us to Our Core

Acclaimed photographer Joyce Tenneson has likened her work to a visual diary, her images not so much about capturing a moment in time as they are an essence, some hidden quality of her subject revealed through the light of her lens.

And when I gaze at her photographs, I can’t help but be startled by them, drawn as much to their aesthetic beauty as I am to a penetrating honesty that speaks to her models’ trust in her presence and to Tenneson’s own ability to weave a tender intimacy from what could easily be an exercise in structure and aloof curiosity.

While the New York City-based photographer has often turned her lens toward men and children in her vast catalog of work, it is her portraits of women that first caught my attention: women of all shapes and sizes and ages, offered up to the viewer with a mix of ethereal luminosity and probing intensity. Having grown up in an environment of primarily women and on the grounds of a convent, Tenneson has always had a deep interest in the feminine. But her fascination has always been with what lies beneath the surface, when women are able to slip from the confines of daily living and routine, and let down the walls that have been masking a crushing sorrow or untold joy, a quiet longing or flowering gift.

There is an element of the spiritual and the mystical in her works but so, too, the universal. For in looking at these women, emboldened to share of themselves in a deeper way, perhaps we, too, may seize the courage to reveal something more of ourselves. Or perhaps in the face of her “Wise Women” or “Light Warriors,” we may reclaim an aspect of our beauty, our power, find in her striking images a safe space for self-discovery and nurturing, her art the doorway to accepting the radiant mysteries and blessings of our femininity.

For me, Tenneson’s photographs celebrate both the human and the divine in each of us, while stirring that echo of the soul that says we are so much more than what our customary presence conveys.

- Naila Francis
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Modern Cowgirls Embody the Gritty and the Graceful

I admit my perspective of the cowgirl is a somewhat romanticized one, the fiercely independent rebel of a woman flying across rugged lands, her spirit as wild and impassioned as the horse beneath her, her heart some wide, undauntable space that would never be confined by the norm or bound by expectation.

And so when I came across “Cowgirls: Contemporary Portraits of the American West,” a photographic exhibit by Ronnie Farley, I was immediately intrigued. For here indeed were women just like the ones I’d imagined, still living that life in the vastness of the American West.

Yet Farley, an acclaimed New York City photographer, goes beyond the mystique to chronicle the hard work, determination and commitment these ranch women embody as they go through grueling days that last well into night, tending to their livestock and to the needs of the ranch itself, from minor repairs to ensuring its survival, often while raising families. Farley builds on the tradition of women like Elnora Sparks, who helped her cattle baron husband John Sparks build a beef empire in 1870s Nevada, and Dorothy Hammond, who became one of the first women in Nevada allowed to travel with the buckaroo wagon men who gathered, vaccinated and branded cattle.

Today, these women ranchers and rodeo competitors may almost seem anachronistic  in their rugged environments. But they are mothers, sisters, grandmothers, daughters, wives and partners just like us – tough ladies, Farley discovered, who know how to meet challenges both gracefully and with resolve, exhibiting “an aura of peacefulness” born of living in communion with their livestock and the land.

For a glimpse of these renegade earth mothers whose contributions to American Western history are often overlooked, visit “Cowgirls: Contemporary Portraits of the American West” when it tours a city  near you or pick up Farley’s book of the same title, and see why so many of these women wouldn’t trade life on the range for all the allure of our bright and bustling cities.

- Naila Francis
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We Have Met the Environment, and It Is Us

Since the Spirited Woman team blog launched two months ago, in my “Green Spirit” posts, I have shared a lot of information about green living and sustainability, among occasional other topics. And of course there is much more in store.

But amidst the day-to-day minutiae of all the eco-tips -- whether it’s switching from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs or bringing your own mug to your local coffee shop -- I realized how easy it is to get bogged down in the details and lose sight of the bigger picture. What are we doing this for?

When we talk about nature or “the environment,” it often seems to be an entity that is apart from us, much like “the government.” This creates distance and a sense of powerlessness, that we are up against something bigger than and separate from ourselves.

In reality, however, here in the U.S. at least, we have a legacy of government “of the people, by the people and for the people,” which inherently gives each of us responsibility to take part in the democratic process. (And while I’m here in the middle of convention season, let me put in a plug to register to vote, if you have not already, and go to the polls in this November’s historic general election, no matter what your party!)

Similarly, we ARE the environment. We ARE the purple mountain majesties, the amber waves of grain, from sea to shining sea. We ARE the rainforests, the coral reefs, the arctic tundra. Our lives are interwoven with those of the whales, the sea turtles, the Siberian tigers and the monarch butterfly, and our cumulative actions impact all species including our own. As humans and global citizens, we cannot separate ourselves from the environment any more than we can separate from our own personalities.

That’s what living green is all about. As I’ve said before (and will say again), by making those tiny daily choices, we are taking into consideration that vast interconnectedness on our planet and in the universe, and respecting our place in the balance of Life.

I will leave you today with a visual reminder of what we are conserving by our green choices…a beautiful slide show of stunning ocean photographs shot in locations across the globe.

~ Teri Breier  www.quintessencecreative.com 
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How Do You Move Through Your Day?

Do you rush from place to place just trying to get everything on your to-do list done? Do you walk quickly eyes looking where you are going while your mind tries to multi-task and worry about so many things at once?

We are Human “BEINGS” not Human Doings.

A Spirited Woman is part of the palette of life all around her, she notices the sites, sounds, fragrances and nuances of life that she is a part of in each moment. I love to look around, to be present in each moment of my day. I like to bask in all the different facets of life occurring around me. One thing that always inspires me is to look at the clouds.

Have you ever really looked at them, noticed them, stopped for a minute to experience them fully?

If you haven't you are missing a wondrous and varied dance of nature. There are so many different kinds of clouds, each with a detailed story of the weather, winds, and unseen currents of nature.

I found a great website the Cloud Appreciation Society. With thousands of photographs of clouds and skies from all over the planet. You can see just a couple in this blog post.

(The above photographs are to be credited to: Jerry Lowell, Coleen Sawitsky, Andrew Lautin)

Take a moment today to look at the clouds, to notice the nuance of the palette of nature all around you.

If You Could Capture Beauty Every Day, What Would it Look Like?

One photographer makes a mission out of such a passion.

There is photography – and then there is art, the striking impression rendered through a lens that conveys so much more than mere person or place, or a moment stamped still in perpetuity. Jennifer Esperanza is a noted photographer whose works have appeared in dozens of publications, from The Sun and National Geographic Adventure to Glamour and Allure.

And yes there is technique, the trained eye, the keen sense, the accumulation of learned skill and plied trade that reveal themselves in her work. But more than that, there is a spirit, a quality of soul that shines through, even the inanimate somehow gifted with a compelling aliveness in the way she views the world. Whether they be playful or sensual, thought-provoking or sweetly innocent, teeming with bold color or arresting in stark contrasts, her photographs are charged with the presence of some inner world rippling just below the surface and imbued with the passionate awareness she brings to daily living.

We are all Connected - There are no Strangers

The world is getting smaller more intimate; the world wide web has been a real catalyst for that.

Our spirited woman blogger team is evidence of it with 9 fun and fabulous women who live all around the world and have come together to share all the interesting facets of the small world we live in with you.

Its fun to feel connected with people from different cultures and the varied and beautiful places they live. I have always enjoyed meeting new people and learning their story. Discovering what is inspirational to them what they find humorous, special, interesting as they enjoy their journey in the human game…

Recently, I found a wonderful project on the internet that captures the spirit of the world getting smaller and more intimate. Its called 100 strangers - the idea was started by Teppo Moisio, from Helsinki, Finland. He is a journalist and photographer. His idea is to have a way for people to step out of their comfort zones and to meet and connect with “strangers” and perhaps make new friends on a global scale.

The challenge is for hobby and professional photographers a like to go out and take 100 photographs of strangers and then post those photographs to the project website on flickr  http://flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

There are 1,652 members in the project and 4,410 photographs posted as of this writing. The rules and guidelines of the project are simple: to improve the social and technical skills needed to meet people and take their photograph.