SleepWalking/Awake

Sleep Walking/Awake was born out of observation of daily life and a pair of colorful pajamas I happened to own (which I bought not because I needed them, but because they were cute and a great deal). “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives,” Annie Dillard wisely observed. Too often we get caught up in the daily grind, only to discover at a later point that most of our lives have been spent on doing things we don’t particularly enjoy/find meaningful. It is not so much what we are doing, but how - whether we are fully present in the activity we are performing or always thinking about the next thing we need to do.

Being awake means being consciously present, an active participant in the life you are living. It often requires us to stop in our tracks, make certain changes and leave room for the unknown in our lives. Or it can simply mean to see our daily activities with new eyes and add more presence and joy.

See the project on the blog here: https://slavabowmanphotography.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/sleep-walkingawake/

“This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
― Alan W. Watts
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
― Rumi
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
― Rumi
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
― Annie Dillard
“The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.”
― Alan W. Watts
“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.”
― Rumi
“You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book… or you take a trip… and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken.”
― Anaïs Nin
“The wonderful thing about Sleep Walking/Awake is that it will have a different meaning for everyone. I loved the time that I spent posing for these photos and walking around in public wearing bright pink PJ’s. I can tell you that I was most certainly awake during every single shot! It made me think about my own life. At any moment, what if someone were to take a polaroid snapshot of me? Would I like what I see? We all fall “asleep” at some point. Otherwise we would never have the feeling of awakening. The trick is to maintain consciousness as long as possible. Slava is marvelous behind the camera. She is an amazing person. I am thankful to have been a part of this project with her because it has taught me a great deal.”

Johnnie Heberer
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