3RD EYE

Designed to study the beauty of decay.

4″x5″ camera made from Aluminium, Titanium, Brass, Silver, Gem Stones and a 150 year old skull of a 13 year old girl. Light and time enters at the third eye, exposing the film in the middle of the skull.

9/11 – SONS OF ABRAHAM

Designed to study the Passions of Abraham by capturing images of Imams, Priests, and Rabbis holding a Koran, Torah or Bible, in front of a Church, Mosque or Synagogue. Different man, different book, different building.

4″x5″ camera made from a solid block 6061 T6 Aircraft Aluminium inlayed with a piece of the Bible from 1860, a piece of the Koran from 1960 and a piece of the Torah from 1880. The jagged piece of metal in the front of the camera with the pinhole in it was once part of a support beam holding up the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

CLASSIC

4″x5″ Camera made from Aluminum, Steel, Insects, and Turn-of-the-Century Cameos.

DEER

Designed to study the core ritual of the hunt and man’s arrogant separation from Nature.

4″x5″ camera made from Steel (3/4″ plate found in the desert near Mexico), Brass (parts from an 1800′s gold scale and bullet shells), Bronze, Copper (Bullets), Aluminum, Antler and Ivory (carved hand from a 18th century Christ figure).

DRAGONFLY

Designed to study and photograph time segments of children.

4″x5″ camera made as an altar for a 9 year old girl that passed away. Made from Aluminium, Steel, Acrylic, Insects, and other relics.

HEART

Designed to take photos of soon-to-be mothers who are at least 8 months pregnant, and explore my relationship with my twin brother who died at birth.

4″x5″ camera made from Aluminium, Titanium, Acrylic, Formaldehyde and an infant human heart.

HIV

Designed to study and photograph a geographic comparison of people suffering from HIV.

4″x5″ camera made from Aluminium, Copper, Titanium, Acrylic and HIV positive blood. The blood pumps through the camera then in front of the pinhole and becomes my #25 red filter.

ROADSIDE ALTAR

Designed to study beautiful altars created at points of tragedy.

A collection of Roadside Altars from the US and Mexico all shot with the Roadside Altar Camera. All titled by their GPS location. The total collection is around 200 photos. All are toned 11″x14″ gelatin silver prints.

WOOD

Designed to study distance.

The Wood Camera is made from Wood, Aluminum, Copper, Steel, Acrylic, and Insects. Most of the camera parts were found in Death Valley, CA. The camera has an interchangeable front plate used to float objects in front of the pinhole. With pinhole photography the focus is infinite. Objects which are a quarter-inch in front of the pinhole are just as in focus as objects 20 miles away.

YAMA

Designed for the study of exodus and for the research of modern incarnations of historical iconic figures.

The latest camera is named Yama, the Tibetan God of Death. In Tibetan Buddhism, Yama will see all of life and Karma is the “judge” that keeps the balance. The skull was blessed by a Tibetan Lama for its current journey and I’m working with a Tibetan legal organization that is sending me to the refugee cities in India.
Yama’s eyes are cast from bronze and silver with a brass pinhole in each. A divider runs down the middle of the skull creating two separate cameras. A finished contact print mounted on copper is inserted in to the back of the camera to view what Yama saw in 3D.

Yama is made from Aluminium, Titanium, Copper, Brass, Bronze Steel, Silver, Gold, Mercury with 4 Sapphires, 3 Rubies (The one at Yama’s third eye was $5000.00), Asian and American Turquoise, Sand, Blood, and 9 Opals inlayed in the Skull. The film loading system is pneumatic. A 300psi air tank in the middle of the camera powers 2 pneumatic pistons to move the film holder forward and lock it into place. The switch to open and close the film chamber is located under the jaw.

Designed for two photo series. First series is of my interpretation of the modern incarnation of Southeast Asians deities. Second will take place in the Tibetan refugee cities of India, a home coming through the eyes of a 500 year old Tibetan.

YEMAYA

4″x5″ underwater pinhole camera made from Aluminium, Acrylic, Brass, Sea creatures and Pearls. An altar to the Santeria Goddess of the ocean, Yemaya, is inside the back of the camera.

The post The horrors of creation and the beauty of decay…
Wayne Martin Belger appeared first on CVLT Nation.

One of Czechia’s most famous tourist attractions is the Sedlec Ossuary, located in the town Kutná Hora, about 45 miles east of the country’s capital Prague. The place is often refered to as bone church or bone chapel, and that for a reason:

The Sedlec Ossuary contains the skeletons of approx. 40.000 people (some resources say up to 70.000), whose bones have in many cases (about 10.000) been artistically arranged to form furnishings for the chapel. When you enter the small, inconspicuous portal you don’t have very much time to prepare yourself for the sight: Due to the small size of the building (it’s really just a chapel) and the fact that there are no vestibules of any kind you’re instantly faced with the first decorations, all made of human bone.

Right after the entry a short stairway leads downward. To the left and right there are two huge, probably about 5.6 ft tall chalices made of bones. Downstairs there’s the enormous chandelier, which supposedly contains at least one of every bone in the human body. Underneath there are four pinnacles, each assembled with 22 skulls. The whole chamber features various garlands of skulls and bones.

The biggest part of the bones however is piled up in the side rooms, all in all four huge stacks. The main attraction besides the chandelier is arguably the big Schwarzenberg coat of arms, which is approx. 6.5 ft tall.

Short movie: The Ossuary

This amazing short movie from 1970 by director Jan Švankmajer shows the chapel in an incredible hectic, almost frightening manner:

History

It was the princely family of Schwarzenberg (which could be translated as “black mountain”) who bought the place in the 19th century. Up to this point the chapel was just a “normal” ossuary, without all the skeletal interior. In 1870, woodcarver František Rint was employed by the Schwarzenbergs to assemble the furnishings.

It is not entirely sure why the Schwarzenbergs wanted the human remains to be turned into decorations. Unquestionably bones and skulls were available in vast numbers: In 1278 the abbot of the monastery in Sedlec (which is located right next to the chapel), was sent to the “Holy Land” by King Otakar II of Bohemia. When he returned, he brought a small amount of earth from what he thought was Golgotha (a hill nearby Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was allegedly executed by the Romans – remains unlocated) and scattered it over the local cemetery. Due to this the cemetery in Sedlec became a desirable burial site throughout all of Central Europe.

The mid 14th century brought the Black Death, which resulted in thousands of victims. After the plague had vanished, already 30.000 bodies had been buried at Sedlec. After the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century, thousands more were buried in the cemetery, often in mass graves.

Around that time a Gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery with a lower chapel to be used as an ossuary for the mass graves unearthed during construction. According to legend, after 1511 the task of exhuming the skeletons and stacking their bones in the chapel was given to a half-blind monk. There were several conversions afterwards; like mentioned above the Schwarzenbergs purchased the chapel in the 19th century and induced the macabre interior finish.

How to get to the Sedlec Ossuary

If you reside in Prague and want to go to Kutná Hora, you can easily take the train or the bus (1 – 1,5 h). You may want to be at the chapel as early as possible, because usually around 11 a.m. the ossuary will be packed with busloads of tourists, and like mentioned above, the chapel is not very big. Even worse than the bulk of people is the fact that most of them can’t even stick to the three simple rules of the ossuary: Be silent, don’t use flashlight, don’t touch the bones. The moment a group of people steps into the church they speak loudly, take pictures with flashlight and touch the furnishings, resulting in an alarm every time. But as already mentioned this suspect experience can largely be avoided by getting there early and, if possible, during the week.

The post Skeletal remains:
The Sedlec Ossuary near Prague appeared first on CVLT Nation.

The city of Camgüey in the east of Cuba is known as ‘The Maze’, its twisting streets built to confound marauders in the 16th Century. Whilst I was lost in its labyrinth serendipity took hold and I met a man who wanted to show me his pet crocodile. Strangeness begat strangeness and later, in the humid night, he led me deep into a barrio of wooden houses. From a hut cold light and the sound of drums streamed into the night. Smiling faces welcomed us into the space, dense with bodies, ripe with the scent of death and swarming with flies. An altar filled half the space laden with fetishes and sticks; a Halloween mask, a desiccated snake, crucifixes, dolls; all covered in black, congealed blood. My companion whispered in my ear that beneath these sacrifices lay a vessel filled with human remains. And then the ceremony began.

Palo Mayombe is a religion developed by the slaves transported to Cuban plantations from the Congo in Central Africa. The religion is practised through ‘houses’ which often have differing practises and beliefs, although ceremonies typically include spirit possession and blood sacrifice. The hierarchy of each house is structured like a family, originally providing a substitute for those separated by slavery from their blood relations.

Palo symbolism reflects a diverse heritage. Rolled up suit trousers echo the clothes of plantation workers, Cuban cigar smoke feeds totemic objects and Catholic iconography is synthesised into Palo belief. Paleros believe that the spirit world, populated by their ancestors, is all around them. In the Palo ceremony reality and spirit are brought together through music, drumming and dancing. By feeding and veneration spirits are encouraged to possess the worshippers and speak through them. Palo is a product of intense transculturation, transcending linear time and physical location. It provides a coping mechanism for its believers throughout the upheavals of slavery, revolution or exile.

‘African’ religions were practised underground in Cuba until the abolition of slavery in 1886. As Spiritualism became internationally popular during this time religions like Palo came out of the shadows. After the 1959 Revolution, Cuba embraced its African heritage and the government took a stance of tolerance towards non-Christian religions. Palo and other Afro-religions, such as the more widely practised Santeria, became accepted and increasingly popular. Today Cuban exiles have made their religions internationally popular, especially in the USA. However, Palo beliefs have been easily confused with voodoo or labelled as Satanism, with accusations of grave-robbing levelled at devotees. As the religion does not have a top down hierarchy and centres on the individual’s relationship with the spirit world is it is difficult for believers to challenge these misrepresentations.

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Palo Mayombe appeared first on CVLT Nation.

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Vintage Hearses appeared first on CVLT Nation.

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Ouija Boards appeared first on CVLT Nation.