Lenny Foster's Show of Hands

March 19, 2009

Sometimes all it takes is a glimmer of hope.

This weekend Lenny Foster will provide more than a glimmer, and all we have to do is show up – and open to the power of spirit, through beauty, prayer and poetry.

His photography exhibit, “A Show of Hands” runs Friday (March 20) thru Sunday (March 22) at Living Light Gallery on 246A Ledoux street. In conjunction with the exhibit will be other uplifting events, also at the gallery and all open to the public.

On Saturday, March 21 at 3 p.m. a multicultural blessing will transpire, “with believers of varied traditions and non-believers too.” Sunday, March 22 brings a poetry reading at 3 p.m. with Veronica Golos, Connie Josefs, Pat McCabe; and Dora Mcquaid, whose work was recently published in an anthology called “Come Together, Imagine Peace.”

Friday’s opening reception is from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and will include Native American flute music by Paul and Grace Jones.

“In the middle of the economic downturn, the idea came to bring the community together to survive and thrive by turning our attention and intention to peace, prayer and love,” said Foster.

“Being witness to magnificence for so many years through my photography has taught me that it’s possible for that (magnificence) to be the norm. That you can walk with that fullness – not lacking anything.”

Some of Saturday’s growing list of guests, who will offer blessings from their various traditions, includes Grandmother Jean, Rev. Stephen Wiard, Joannie Summerhays, Father Larry Brito and Rick Klein. Group chants will be led by Mia Cohen and Ziva Moyal from the Taos Jewish Center.

Krishna Madappa and several UNM students will be conducting a scientific experiment to see if the group energy harnessed at the ceremony affects the molecular structure of water.

“It will be crazy. It could be fifty people or it could be 500. You never know in Taos. I hope there will be Challah (Jewish ceremonial bread.) I love that part at Bar Mitzvahs: where someone touches the bread and then someone touches them and so on until we’re all connected,” said Foster.

Surrounding and supporting the blessing circle will be walls filled with over a decades worth of Foster’s photographs of hands. This will be the first time this body of work is shown together.

On one wall, a 106-year-old West African healer does a reading over a basket. On another, a baby suckles his mother’s breast and raises a tiny star-like hand towards his momma’s face. A cowboy grasps his hat to his suede vest. A Lama counts his mala beads. These images – of shamans, healers of many traditions, activists, elders and “everyday people who come from a place of love and service” – are a portal to spirit.

“She just showed up here one day,” said Foster, gesturing to “An Elder’s Prayer.” In the image, wrinkled fingers, adorned with silver, turquoise and stone rings, clutch a hand-carved cane.

“I had just moved into the space and she sat there and hung out while I unpacked. I know that angels come in different forms.”

Each grasping finger is as expressive and complex as a face. Energy, strength and compassion transcend flesh, muscles and skin.

The hand series sprouted out of a trip Foster took to West Africa years ago. He was visiting a healing village that 200 healers worked out of, and he experienced a shift. He had been a nature and landscape photographer for years and he suddenly became more entranced by people and their details.

“I started to photograph hands because I was more drawn to spirit than personality,” he explained. Later, he realized that in photographing their hands, he was also capturing his subjects’ physical centers: their core, their hearts.

When he’s behind the lens, Foster gets very quiet, still and mindful. “I don’t shoot hundreds of pictures of one thing. My intention is to get to the essence and then what needs to be seen reveals itself,” he said.

“As a photographer I have to focus on the right stuff – so when I don’t have the camera, I can still focus on what is beauty, what is grace, what is true,” he said.

He was inspired to go even more deeply into his passion after traveling to Washington D.C. to attend president Obama’s inauguration. And he hopes the weekend’s events will inspire others to do so as well.

“Now there’s no excuse not to. Instead of being afraid of going out of my comfort zone, why don’t I just dive down like a hawk diving for his prey? If I go down in flames, at least I’ll be doing my thing.”

For more information call (575) 737-9150 or visit www.lennyfoster.com