The Miracle Portraits: In Search of the American Dreamtime

There are two ways to live your life - one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle. ~Albert Einstein

Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the "dreamtime", more real than reality itself... It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime. ~A quote from the film The Last Wave by Peter Weir

I set up an awkward old camera on a street corner and ask strangers to tell me a miracle story—some moment when the veils parted, intuition trumped logic, the worlds overlapped, and dumb luck won out.

In this age of street distractions and public isolation, where we’re all so fearful of each other, the surprise is how many people say yes, are willing to share an intimacy with a stranger.

I record their story, then duck under the black cloth and focus on their magnified eyes. As they hold perfectly still, I load the film, cock the shutter. And in that suspended moment of silence, as they look honestly into the lens, the picture occurs.

Often, in my discomfort, I rush and fumble, and try to fill the silence with small talk. I learned quickly that’s like whistling in church. People want to bring their full self to this moment, with as little distraction as possible. People want to surrender into the ceremony of the occasion.

By telling their story to someone listening deeply, then standing for an old-time portrait, this spontaneous moment between strangers meeting on an ordinary street corner transforms into a ritual of remembrance. We drop briefly into Dreamtime to witness where the mystical has left its thumbprint on the mundane.

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