Engaging the Unknown
Trees-XXXV by Wenda Salomons
by Wenda Salomons
I began my journey with pinhole photography in my undergrad. Building and using a pinhole camera to make photographs seemed a whim of an assignment from a professor and so I didn’t give it much weight. But when I saw the resulting images, I knew pinhole photography was my “partner” for life. I immediately fell in love with the dream-like representations of the world. There was an emotive quality to the images that just fit so well with what I wanted to explore.
That was over 30 years ago. Since then I’ve been building, playing, and taking risks alongside this “partner.” My art practice for many years was creating black and white pinhole prints. When a physical move deprived me of a darkroom, I turned to my smartphone camera as a way to continue engaging my art practice, without a pinhole lens and without making prints. I committed to taking photos once a day to keep exercising my photography “muscles” and this practice turned into a very contemplative experience. I found myself looking in the unlikeliest places for compositions, textures, and relationships.
This contemplative engagement shaped my broader photography practice, as I eventually turned away from black and white analogue photography to colour digital photography. The pandemic afforded me time to more fully explore my relationships to my subjects. In taking pinhole photographs now, my focus is on exploring the experience of being with my natural subjects. I ask myselfhow am I impacting this flower/leaf/tree with my presence? andhow am I being impacted by this flower/leaf/tree? What exists in the space between us?In the air? I contemplatively explore movement and the concept of interbeing.
The pinhole lens prevents me from using my camera’s viewfinder, so I can’t see with precision what I’m photographing. This is also part of my practice — engaging the unknown. I have had enough experience that I can make a good guess about what I’m shooting, but there always remains something of the surprising, the mysterious, the enigmatic — exactly the characteristics that drew me in in the first place. And these aspects of my art practice complement my spiritual journey so well.
Making pinhole photographs has been a beautiful path for me to consider the value of playing, risking, and living with the unknown. It’s been an extraordinary way for me to connect with the Divine and to wonder together about life and the world. I’m immensely grateful for the initial invitation so long ago and for the prodding to continue my practice through many life changes. It has transformed and shaped me for good.
Wenda Salomons
has an academic background in theology, education, and the visual arts. She completed the Pacific Jubilee SoulGuiding Program in 2025 and is now a companion in the SoulMentoring Program. She works as a healthcare chaplain and maintains a visual art practice. In all she does, Wenda seeks to build connection and foster healing in community through engagement with spirituality and the arts.
Wenda lives with her family in Amiskwâciwaskahikan in Treaty 6 territory also known as Edmonton in Alberta.
Read about Wenda's spiritual accompaniment practice here. See her website here and her Instagram here.
