The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

I woke up at 5:00am this morning to go down to the Central World Mall where an annual gathering of 20,600 monks meditate and pray. An amazing sight.

That's a lot of monks right there in the middle of the street.

Monk patterns.

Old monks, young monks . . . all kinds of monks.

A few sleepy monks among the gathered throng(?) . . . what is the unit term for a gathering of monks? Covey? Tribe?  Gaggle?

I took a million photos of the monks . . . I was totally engrossed with the visual imagery and the spiritual power of the occasion.

It was fantastic to see the part of the city where I go all the time with my wife suddenly be completely full of Buddhist monks.

The Abbots from the many Wats (Buddhist temples) filled the front rows.

An advertisement for what one might do with one's consciousness while "out of the blue and into the black."

One can overlay many layers of meaning onto this gathering of monks. The story I like is that this is a drawing of the spiritual battle lines between a personal and private project to obtain a clear and unattached consciousness versus the crazy desire to have ever more material objects as a symbol of the delusion of meaningfulness.

I cannot imagine a better part of town to throw down a karmic antidote.

Not everyone is driven by obsessive material attachment: there were many, many pilgrims present to give alms.

The devotees left many donations to defray the cost of today's big ceremony. 

The 20,600 monks faced the 100,00+ devotees, here to give alms.

The occasion is not just a gathering of monks, it is also an opportunity to give the traditional morning alms to the monks, but this time in mass.

Families had come very early in the morning to find a place in the alms lines.

Monks walking among the gathered followers . . . a beautiful sight.

After the morning chant, the monks proceed down the stripped walk to receive alms from the gathered devotees.

The monks eventually take their place in front of a family who offers food, candles, and incense.

The monks marched down one side to the end, then cam back to other side . . . in a fantastic movement of crisscrossing orange among white.

Serious, austere monks among the alms givers.

The monks walked under the pedestrian bridge I was on and then down the street where thousands more alms givers waited.

The city center had been made over in white, red and orange.  Great spirit.

There were monks everywhere in the side streets and in front of the buildings that surrounded the main ceremony.

It was a photographers dream . . . . I could not resist these reflected monks!

Reflected monks were  Everywhere!

An old monk taking care of business in the red chairs.

When the last alms had been given, the gathered crowd participated in picking up the cloths and ceremonial accouterments.

Everyone pitched in to clear the streets.

While the road was being cleared, monks and pilgrims mingled on the street.

This kind old monk gave me an Buddhist amulet.

The alms were bagged and trucked to various Buddhist temples, there was more than each monk could carry.

I met several big time professional photographers while taking photos on the pedestrian bridge; this is Tony B from New York City.  The event attracted photographers from all over the world.

One of the really cool things you can do in Bangkok is to have an old car restored -- cheaply.  If you happen to have an "overseas contract" with a corporation or embassy you may also have the benefit of shipping your car over to Thailand, and shipping it back at the end of the contract.

If the car you ship to Thailand happens to be a rusty old classic 1965 Mustang convertible, and the car you ship back is the same car but fully restored, so much the better.

I really like my friend's Mustang restoration.  He used the straight six cylinder engine and four-speed manual transmission, but with a racing cylinder head and Paxton supercharger.  Very nice.

A big valve, large port, aluminum racing head with a matching camshaft for the supercharger.  The supercharger and 4-bbl fuel injector throttle body were removed for shipping -- a one-barrel carburetor was rigged to get the Mustang in and out of it's container. What you can't see are the hand-fabricated stainless steel headers and duel exhausts.  Nice work.

The interior is all new as well.  Various patch panels were butt-welded in here and there.  Very good work.

New chrome bumpers and trim items, along with a new vinyl convertible top finish the rebuild.

A nice early hot season day in Bangkok; a Saturday . . . time to go in to Bangkok to give up some blood at Bummrungrad Hospital for my doctor's appointment next week.  I always stand next to this window by the cashier's counter and admired the view . . . today I took a photo.

After the blood letting I was out on food in Bangkok.  I noticed my iPhone belt pouch was falling apart so I stopped at a sidewalk seamster's establishment to have it re-sewed.  Very handy.  Cost me 20 baht (US$0.60).

Since I had to "fast" before the blood sample, I walked over to La Monita Mexican Grille a few blocks away - starving.  I had never eaten there, but it came highly recommended.  I was very happy with the food (B+) and the incredible colors of the interior (NOT bumped up in PhotoShop!).  WOW!

I was running late, so I took a taxi to Siam Square area for my not-so-regular hair cut. Siam Square is across the street from the mammoth Paragon Mall and is a maze of covered alleys filled with interesting little shops.  This is the view from the SkyTrain platform.

All along the way, and I do mean all along the way, the temptation of that which is forbidden to cross my lips proliferates beyond imagination and in abundance, and I do mean beyond imagination. Solid sugar constuctions.

Inside The Machine.  I left my barber light headed and walked to the MBK Mall to a camera store I knew about.  I have been researching the purchase of a new lens, the Sigma 12-24 II . . . a wide zoom for a full frame camera like my Canon 50D Mark II.  They let me put it on my camera and go out in the mall to test its capabilities.  I took this picture.  I didn't buy it . . . I was not happy with this particular example.

In this part of Bangkok (Siam Center), where the SkyTrain runs, they have suspended a wide pedestrian walkway, a promenade, above the famous Bangkok Traffic.

People describe the effect as "living in the movie Blade Runner."

There is a surreal element about this urban environment.

I took a short-cut through several air-conditioned malls and then out on the elevated promenade to the CentralWorld Mall (burned down during "The Troubles" a couple of years ago).  I had to marvel at the amazing contrasts to be found in Bangkok: messy poverty and post-modern grandeur.

I checked out the photo stors at CentralWorld mall without seeing anything I liked.  The glitz here is on a monumental scale.

There is something very disturbing about naming a department store "Zen" . . . even if it is a Japanese department store.  "Counter-Zen" would be more like it!  In the CentralWorld Mall, Bangkok, February 25, 2012.

As the sun was setting over Bangkok, I made my way through a few more interconnected malls to the Intercontenential Hotel where I shagged a taxi home.  It was good "to out amung'em."

Every year I take a group of high school students from the International School Bangkok into the slums of Klong Toey in Bangkok, Thailand to carry out a community service project for the Mercy Center Foundation.

This year we worked with 3-5 year-old pre-school and kidergarteners.

It was a visually, as well as culturally, interesting place.

About the only safe way out of the cycle of poverty in this part of Bangkok is to commit to education.  Liking school becomes a necessity.

This school is organized as an intervention in the "Eldest Daughter Syndrome," where the oldest daughter quits school at 9 or 10 years of age to take care of the younger children and becomes enmeshed in the cycle of poverty herself.  By providing day schooling for young children, the older girls can finish school and move out of the slum.

The school is not without resources, thanks to Father Joe and the Mercy Center Foundation.

We brought large boxes of art materials and lesson plans for fun projects.

The kids ere very enthralled with the art projects.

Some students showed very good art skills.

We shared our hope with the young art students.

There were many different activities to choose from.

The kids were eager to help.

Art is not easy.

Sometimes an artist just needs to think.

In addition to providing a school, materials, and teachers, the mercy Center, through its donors, also provide vitamin fortified milk and a health lunch so the childrens' physical development is assured.

The kids loved that milk.

The school suddenly became very quiet when the milk was handed out.

Not every day is a good day.

At the end of the school day mothers, relaties, or neighbors would fetch the children.  This mother brought an especially observant baby.

An 1872 photograph of Borobudur taken by a Dutch photographer, Isidore van Kinsbergen. The picture also shows the Dutch flag on top of the main dome. The "Lost Temple of Borobudur" had been discovered!

The great Borobudur Temple in Central Java Indonesia is often compared to Ankor Wat in Cambodia.  Although Borobudur is not as vast as Ankor, it may be better preserved as the result of having been buried in volcanic ash for the past 700 years.

Borobudur is a huge pyramid literally covered with Buddha images and miles and miles of bas relief panels depicting the life of The Buddha, the royally of the period, and the life of the ordinary people of the region at the time.

The state of preservation is remarkable. The spouting corner Garudas are a good example.

Many (54 actually) fine Buddhas remain in their alcoves, untouched by looters.

Life-sized Buddhas everywhere decorate the exterior.

UNESCO and other donor maintain the structure and continuously engage in its restoration.

But the real treat of seeing Borobudur are the 2,672 exquisitely carved, and perfectly preserved 1300 year old stone panels. Magnificent!

The ancient sea.

Hindu Sadus, royal personages and their attendants . . . .

Life in the royal court.

The work of the servants.

Holy men and court advisors.

The lives of the Royals.

The Royals and their retinue.

The spiritual practices of the Royalty depicted everywhere.

Housing and village life from 1300 years ago in Central Java.

Many Indonesian tourists to asked me to take my photograph . . . I obliged, but only if I could take their photograph.  I found it amazing to think of these girls as the descendants of the girls carved into the stone just over their shoulders.  In fact, the girl at the left looks remarkably like the girl just over behind her!

I had the same feeling about these temple restorers on their break: they looked like the people depicted in the panels they were leaning against.

There were so many beautiful panels . . . and I took a million photos . . . here are a few more in a slideshow format: