Luna; 44° North
The sky was lit
by the splendor of the moon
So powerful
I fell to the ground.
Your love
has made me sure
I am ready to forsake
this worldly life
and surrender
to the magnificence
of your Being.— Rumi
The moon represents a motherly figure embodying feminine energy and is closely connected to our emotions and intuition. She symbolizes maternal protection, care, and confidentiality and is the only companion of my waking nights. She is the luminous lady that dawns on me in the quiet of the night, baptizing me in her divine light. Crawling around my room, she tenderly approaches me to heal my earthly sorrows. When her radiant face appears, it casts a spell of enchantment that captivates my soul; in her essence, I seek the truth of myself. With her, every moment feels like a glimpse into eternity, where time stands still.
As a night owl, my day commences at the hush of night when the city is enveloped in darkness. I have always been captivated by witnessing the moon ascend as a shining sun in the heart of darkness, like a glimmer of hope. This persisted until I relocated to the Netherlands, a country known for its overcast skies, frequent rainfall, and strong winds; I felt like I had lost my lighthouse.
Things once again worsened when I moved to my current home in a densely populated area surrounded by other buildings. Now, it’s just me and a few small windows forming a cropped frame of the sky. Due to the climate and the moon’s movement, I can barely see it most nights. This marked the beginning of my amusement for this project. With my camera, I playfully chase the moon to capture her alluring face, always running away from me. I find her behind raindrops, among foliage beyond the window, next to the neighbor’s balcony, in the reflection of windows, and sometimes even trapped in a mirror.
This pursuit harkens back to the early days of love when one would chase after their beloved, yearning for another moment in their company. I find myself falling in love with the moon anew every time I lay eyes on her. Watching this celestial pearl through the lens fills me with a sense of ecstasy, lost between conscious and unconscious. I am inspired to explore this moment of confrontation in which I melt in the sublime beauty of the lunar.
Rumi — Jalal ad-Din Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, scholar, and Sufi mystic, widely renowned as one of the greatest poets of modern times due in part to the universal allure of his mystical poetry. In Rumi’s poems, the moon symbolizes the human soul reflecting the divine, as well as representing a person’s longing for their loved one.
