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Thomas Merton: Photographer Contributors Biographies by Paul M Pearson Deba P. Patnaik was a friend of and visited with Merton at the Abbey of Gethsemani on numerous occasions. He has taught at the University of Louisville, University of Michigan, Cornell University, along with other universities and schools in Thomas Merton showed little interest in photography until the final years of his life. the . He edited Geography of Holiness: The Photography of Thomas On a visit to Germany as a teenager he had bought his first camera, a Zeiss, which he Merton, A Merton Concelebration, and Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black 1 subsequently pawned as his debts grew at Cambridge University in the early thirties. In Photographers. 1939 he visited an exhibit of Charles Sheeler’s at the Museum of Modern Art, which he 2 found “dull.” Then, from the late fifties onwards Merton had contact with some eminent Paul M Pearson is the Director and Archivist of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarm- North American photographers beginning with Shirley Burden. Burden had provided ine University. He is Vice-President and Resident Secretary of the International Tho- photographs for a postulant’s guide, Monastic Peace, for the cover of Merton’s Selected mas Merton Society and editor of Seeking Paradise: The Spirit of the Shakers. He has Poems, and had undertaken a photographic study of the monks at the Abbey of contributed articles and reviews to The Merton Annual, The Merton Journal, Hallel, Gethsemani, God Is My Life, for which Merton wrote the introduction. When Merton U.S. Catholic Historian, The Merton Seasonal, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, Monos, was considering a photographic study of the Shakers, it was to Burden he turned. Parabola, and Priests and People. In 1963 John Howard Griffin, with whom Merton had already had contact in relation to Civil Rights, wrote requesting permission to “begin a photographic archive of Merton’s Bonnie B. Thurston is a founding member of the International Thomas Merton Soci- life and activities.” When Griffin visited Merton to photograph him he recalls “Tom ety and served as its third president. After 27 years as a university professor Bonnie watched with interest, wanting an explanation of the cameras – a Leica and an Alpa.” Thurston has resigned her position as William F. Orr Professor of New Testament at According to Griffin Merton remarked on his friendship with Shirley Burden and also Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to begin life as a solitary in West Virginia. She is the with Edward Rice, a friend from his days at Columbia, before stating “I don’t know author of ten theological books, one volume of poetry and over 100 articles, twenty of anything about photography, but it fascinates me.”3 which are on Thomas Merton.

It is a little unclear when Merton began taking photographs himself at the Abbey of Gethsemani. On October 10th 1961 he records having taken “half a roll of Kodacolor at the hermitage” wondering “what earthly reason is there for taking color photographs? … or any photographs at all.”4 Yet, just a few months later in January 1962 Merton records taking photographs at Shakertown, finding there “some marvelous subjects.” Marvelous, silent, vast spaces around the old buildings. Cold, pure light, and some grand trees … How the blank side of a frame house can be so completely beautiful I cannot imagine. A completely miraculous achievement of forms.5 Merton was obviously pleased with his results that day as in a later journal entry he says he is planning to have enlargements made of some of his photographs of Shakertown, describing it as “very satisfying.”6

1 Mott, Michael. The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), 83. 2 Merton, Thomas. Run to the Mountain: The Story of a Vocation, edited by Patrick Hart, (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1995), 68. 3 Griffin, John Howard. A Hidden Wholeness: The Visual World of Thomas Merton, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970), 37. 4 Merton, Thomas. Turning Toward the World: The Pivotal Years, edited by Victor A. Kramer, (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996), 169. 5 Ibid., 194. 6 Merton, Thomas. Dancing in the Water of Life: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage, edited by Robert E. Daggy, (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1997), 23.

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Exhibit Catalogues Certainly by 22nd September 1964 Merton had regular access to a camera and records in his personal journal The Paradox of Place: Thomas Merton’s Photography. Catalogue of the exhibition at Brother Ephrem has fitted me out with a camera (Kodak Instamatic) to the McGrath Art Gallery, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY, 10th October help take pictures for a book Dom James wants done. So far I have been 2003 to 11th November 2003. Contributions by Anthony Bannon, Paul M photographing a fascinating old cedar root I have on the porch. I am Pearson, Paul Quenon, OCSO, and Marilyn Sundermann, RSM. not sure what this baby can do. The lens does not look like much – but it changes the film by itself and sets the aperture, etc. Very nice.7 The Paradox of Place: Thomas Merton’s Photography. Catalogue of the exhibition at Just two days later Merton continues the Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 4th to 8th June After dinner I was distracted by the dream camera, and instead of seri- 2003. Contributions by Paul M Pearson, Paul Quenon, OCSO, and Marilyn ously reading the Zen anthology I got from the Louisville Library, kept Sundermann, RSM. seeing curious things to shoot, especially a mad window in the old tool room of the woodshed. The whole place is full of fantastic and strange The Photography of Thomas Merton. Catalogue of the exhibition at the Louisville School subjects – a mine of Zen photography. After that the dream camera of Art, Louisville KY, 10 Dec 1978 to 14 Jan 1979. Contributions by Robert E. suddenly misbehaved.8 Daggy, Patrick Hart OCSO, Bruce H.Yenawine. Louisville, KY: Thomas Merton and Merton records that the back of the camera would not lock shot. Two days later he Studies Center and Louisville School of Art, 1978. Unpaged. writes again Camera back. Love affair with camera. Darling camera, so glad to have you back! Monarch! XXX. It will I think be a bright day again today.9

In his journals Merton records occasional access to a variety of cameras belonging to his visitors – Naomi Burton Stone’s Nikon,10 John Howard Griffin’s Alpa,11 even on one occasion a “Japanese movie camera” which he described as “a beautiful thing.”12 In August 1967 Merton refers in passing to taking some pictures of roots, this time with a Rolleiflex. However in January 1968 Merton fell and thought he might have broken the Rolleiflex so that the back was letting in light. He immediately wrote to John Howard Griffin to take up an offer he had made to loan Merton a camera. In his letter Merton describes the kind of camera he would need: Obviously I am not covering the Kentucky Derby etc. But I do like a chance at fast funny out of the way stuff too. The possibility of it in case. But as I see it I am going to be on roots, sides of barns, tall weeds,

7 Ibid., 147. A number of the photographs in this exhibit were taken by Merton using this Kodak Instamatic - # 1, 6, 12, 15, 18, and 24. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid., 149. 10 Merton, Thomas. Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom, edited by Christine M. Bochen, (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1997), 221. 11 Griffin, A Hidden Wholeness, 37. 12 Merton, Thomas. The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey, edited by Patrick Hart, (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1998), 6.

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mudpuddles, and junkpiles until Kingdom come. A built-in exposure Bibliography of works related to the meter might be a help.13 Photography of Thomas Merton In response Griffin loaned Merton a Canon F-X which he described as “fabulous” and “a joy to work with.” Merton continues Books: The camera is the most eager and helpful of beings, all full of happy suggestions: ‘Try this! Do it that way!’ Reminding me of things I have Griffin, John Howard. A Hidden Wholeness: The Visual World of Thomas Merton. overlooked, and cooperating in the creation of new worlds. So simply. Photographs by Thomas Merton and John Howard Griffin, text by John Howard Griffin. 14 This is a Zen camera. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1970. 147 p. Dunwoody, GA: Norman S. Berg, 1977. 147 p. Generally Merton’s preferred photographic medium was black and white, though a Boston: Houghton Mifflin Paperbacks, 1979. 146 p. number of photographs in the collections at the Thomas Merton Center are in color. Meatyard, Ralph Eugene. Father Louie: Photographs of Thomas Merton by Ralph Merton never did his own developing or printing, this was generally done for him either Eugene Meatyard. Edited by Barry Magid. [Includes the correspondence of by Griffin, his son Gregory, or by other friends. Griffin recalls Merton and Meatyard.] that he and his son were frequently bewildered by the pictures New York: Timken Publishers, 1991. 108 p. Merton selected from contact sheets to be enlarged. “He ig- Patnaik, Deba Prasad. Geography of Holiness: The Photography of Thomas Merton. nored many superlative photographs while marking others” Photographs by Thomas Merton. Edited, with an Introduction and Afterword by wrote Griffin, we thought he had not yet learned to judge pho- Deba Prasad Patnaik. tographs well enough to select consistently the New York: Pilgrim Press, 1980. xi, 100 p. best frames. We wrote and offered advice about the quality of some of the ignored frames. He Articles and Essays: went right on marking what he wanted rather than what we thought he should want. Then, Carter, Nancy Corson “Listening for the Light: The Photographs of Thomas Merton.” more and more often, he would send a contact Includes six photographs by Thomas Merton. Epiphany 5 (Fall 1984): 79-85. sheet with a certain frame marked and his ex- Daggy, Robert E. “Thomas Merton: A Cosmopolitan in Kentucky.” Olean Times-Herald cited notation: ‘At last – this is what I have been 119 (18 April 1979): 5. aiming for.’15 de Waal, Esther. “The Camera in the Hands of a Monk.” Thomas Merton: Poet, Monk, Sadly, none of those original contact sheets have survived. They would have provided Prophet. Edited by Paul M. Pearson, Danny Sullivan, and Ian Thompson. a fascinating insight into Merton’s photography. (Abergavenny, UK: Three Peaks Press, 1998): 48-55. Hart, Patrick, OCSO. “On the Photography of Thomas Merton.” Merton Seasonal 4.1 In January 1967 Thomas Merton began to develop a friendship with another local (Winter 1979): 2. photographer, Ralph Eugene Meatyard who, through his photographs, has left us Hart, Patrick, OCSO. “Merton Used Camera as Contemplative Instrument.” Olean Times- an intriguing photographic record of Merton. In his personal journal Merton recorded Herald 119 (18 April 1979): 4. the visit of Jonathan Williams, Guy Davenport and Meatyard16 and in particular his Hart, Patrick, OCSO. “Photography and Prayer in Thomas Merton” Merton Seasonal 7.2 excitement at Meatyard’s work: (Summer 1982): 2-5. The one who made the greatest impression on me as artist was Gene Hart, Patrick, OCSO. “Thomas Merton’s New Mexico Photographs.” Introduction [part Meatyard, the photographer – does marvelous arresting visionary things, of Foreword to Woods, Shore, Desert, with text and photographs from Woods, most haunting and suggestive, mythical, photography I ever saw. I Shore, Desert] Palacio 88.3 (1982): 23-28. 17 felt that here was someone really going somewhere. Hart, Patrick, OCSO. “Contemplation and Camerawork in Thomas Merton.” Contemplative 13 Merton, Thomas. The Road to Joy: The Letters of Thomas Merton to New and Old Friends, edited by Robert E. Daggy, (New Review 15 (Spring 1982): 32-34. York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1989), 140. Meatyard, Christopher. “Merton’s ‘Zen Camera’ and Contemplative Photography.” 14 Ibid., 141. Kentucky Review 7 (1987): 122-144. 15 Griffin, A Hidden Wholeness, 90. Pearson, Paul M. “The Paradox of Place: Thomas Merton’s Photography.” Parabola 29.3 16 Writing to Bob Lax he referred to them as “three Kings from Lexington.” (Fall 2004): 67-71. 17 Merton, Learning to Love, 186. Simsic, Wayne. “The Camera and Prayer.” Spiritual Life 31 (Spring 1985): 42-45.

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35 Tracks in Snow Later writing about Merton and Meatyard, Davenport described Meatyard as “one of Before the first step is taken, the goal is reached. the most distinguished of American photographers,” part of the Lexington Camera Club Before the tongue is moved the speech is finished. with members such as Van Deren Coke, Guy Mendes, and Robert C. More than brilliant intuition is needed May. Meatyard, was a professional optician, who bought his first camera to photograph To find the origin of the right road.35 his young son in 1950. In 1956 his photographs were exhibited with those of , , Henry Callaghan and other modern masters. That same year he attended a photography workshop where, working with Henry Holmes Smith and , he became interested in Zen. Davenport describes Meatyard’s work as “primarily an intricate symmetry of light and shadow. He liked deep shadows of considerable weight, and he liked light that was decisive and clean.”18 Words equally applicable to many of Merton’s photographs.

From their meeting in January 1967 until Merton’s death the following year Merton met Gene Meatyard numerous times and exchanged a brief but steady correspondence of over sixteen letters. During this time Meatyard took over one hundred photographs of Merton, some of the most enigmatic taken. These photographs capture both the paradox of Merton and Meatyard’s surrealistic vision – Meatyard realized with Merton that he was photographing a Kierkegaard who was a fan of Mad; a Zen adept and hermit who drooled over hospital nurses with a cute behind … a man of accomplished self-discipline who sometimes acted like a ten-year- old with an unlimited charge account at a candy store.19

For Merton his photography, as his writing, became a way for him to explore and express his relationship with the world. In a journal entry from December 1963 Merton reflects on a saying of Merleau-Ponty: “I am myself as I exist in the world.”20 This leads him to question the position he had been taking, of being himself by withdrawing from the world, and stating that he agrees profoundly with Merleau-Ponty providing that the world he is referring to is not one of “delusions and clichés.” He writes that “to withdraw from where I am in order to be totally outside all that situates me – this is real delusion.” Merton’s description of his camera as a “Zen camera” fits very well with the Zen koan- like nature of this insight.

In Darjeeling, just a couple of weeks before his death, Merton struggled with the Mountain Kanchenjunga. In Kanchenjunga Merton saw an answer to his questions, the mountain holds paradoxes together. It has a side that is seen and a side that is not seen, it is a “palace of opposites in unity,” “impermanence and patience, solidity and nonbeing, existence and wisdom.” Developing his reflection on the mountain Merton added:

18 Meatyard, Ralph Eugene. Father Louie: Photographs of Thomas Merton, (New York: Timken, 1991), 34. 35 Merton, Thomas. Working Notebook # 52: Zen, etc. Unpublished Manuscript in the archives of the Thomas Merton Center 19 Ibid., 35. at Bellarmine University, Louisville, Kentucky. 20 Merton, Dancing in the Water of Life, 48.

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The full beauty of the mountain is not seen until you too consent to the 31 Window in Side of Barn impossible paradox: it is and is not. When nothing more needs to be We are exiles in the far end of solitude, living as listeners said, the smoke of ideas clears, the mountain is SEEN.21 With hearts attending to the skies we cannot understand: This is similar to Merton’s vision of photography and, as he tries to captures images of Waiting upon the first far drums of Christ the Conqueror, the mountain with his camera, Merton writes: Planted like sentinels upon the world’s frontier.31 The camera does not know what it takes: it captures materials with which you reconstruct not so much what you saw as what you thought you 32 Watering Can at Hermitage saw. Hence the best photography is aware, mindful, of illusion and uses Zen seeks not to explain but to pay attention, to become aware, to be mindful.32 illusion, permitting and encouraging it – especially unconscious and powerful illusions that are not normally admitted on the scene.22 33 Ladder and Chair Words reminiscent of Meatyards understanding of Zen and his way of dealing with This is the land where You have given me roots in eternity.33 illusion by his frequent use of masks in his photographs, most noticeably in his collection The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater.

In A Hidden Wholeness Griffin describes Merton’s vision of photography: His vision was more often attracted to the movement of wheat in the wind, the textures of snow, paint-spattered cans, stone, crocuses blossoming through weeds – or again, the woods in all their hours, from the first fog of morning, though noonday stillness, to evening quiet. In his photography, he focused on the images of his contemplation, as they were and not as he wanted them to be. He took his camera on his walks and, with his special way of seeing, photographed what moved or excited him – whatsoever responded to that inner orientation. His concept of aesthetic beauty differed from that of most men. Most would pass by dead tree roots in search of a rose. Merton photographed the dead tree root or the texture of wood or whatever crossed his path. In these works, he photographed the natural, unarranged, unpossessed objects of his contemplation, seeking not to alter their life but to pre- serve it in his emulsions. In a certain sense, then, these photographs do not need to be studied, they need to be contemplated if they are to carry their full impact.23 From these comments by Griffin, and through looking at Merton’s photographs it is clear that Thomas Merton used his camera as a contemplative instrument and he 34 Wheel Barrow at Hermitage photographed the things he contemplated. In a Zen koan someone said that an enlightened man is not one who seeks Buddha or finds Buddha, but simply an ordinary man who has nothing left to do.34 Thomas Merton’s initial reaction to photography was negative as seen by his comments about taking photographs at the hermitage. Very quickly Merton’s view of photography changed. As he discovered contemplative photography, and how to

31 Ibid., 201. 21 Merton, The Other Side of the Mountain, 286. 32 Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite, 38. 22 Ibid., 284. 33 Merton, Sign of Jonas, 337. 23 Griffin, A Hidden Wholeness, 49-50. 34 Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 258.

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2 7 Rocks and Root use a camera as a contemplative instrument, he produced images which had the same The meaning of life is found in openness to being and “being present” in full effect as his later drawings and anti-poetry. The media and advertisers used images awareness.27 manipulatively to sell a story or an object. By contrast, Merton’s images have nothing to sell, they cause us to pause, to stop, to see, to see what is right in front of us every day. 28 Root Merton’s discovery of the medium of photography in the sixties was used by him in a At the center of our being is a similar way to his calligraphies and his anti-poetry. The words of his poem “In Silence” point of nothingness which is un- serve to illustrate this well: touched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or Be still spark which belongs entirely to Listen to the stones of the wall. God … this little point of nothing- Be silent, they try ness and of absolute poverty is To speak your the pure glory of God in us.28 Name. 29 Root Listen to the living walls. Nirvana: perfect awareness and Who are you? prefect compassion. Nirvana is Who the wisdom of perfect love Are you? Whose grounded in itself and shining Silence are you? … through everything, meeting with no opposition.29 “I will try, like them To be my own silence: 30 Root And this is difficult. The whole My love is darkness! World is secretly on fire. The stones Burn, even the stones Only in the Void They burn me. How can a man be still or Are all ways one: Listen to all things burning? How can he dare To sit with them when Only in the night All their silence Are all the lost Is on fire?”24 Found.

In my ending is my meaning.30

27 Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite, 81. 28 Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 142. 29 Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite, 84. 30 Merton, Collected Poems, 635. 24 Merton, Thomas. The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, (New York: New Directions, 1977), 280-281.

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