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BY JOHN RUNNING

The image comes first.

In the beginning, before there was language, there was a non-verbal way of
comprehending the world. There was the image. Now, except in our dreams, we
tend to translate images into words.

Recently, I made a series of photographs in my studio of women with wild animal skulls. Now that I have made these images, as I am trying to find words, it comes to mind that these photos are more about something from our distant past – from all the way back to the time of the ice.

I recently read the idea that, back at the time of our emergence, the female - the woman - was more than a fertility deity. More than a mother, she was also the first practitioner of medicine and magic and that, in fact, she was the Creator. Back in our stone age emergence, God was female and this still imprints our genetic codes.

For me, the image comes first. I see it in front of me – a woman holding an animal skull. I suggest to the model that this is about life, not death. She works with some
direction at first but soon it seems to me that as she carries and caresses her animal totem she becomes a soul carrier and spirit guide.

I react to this by submitting myself to the model and her intuitions. We become
collaborators as we respond to our GENETIC IMPRINTS.
John Running

NOTE: I want to thank, honor and acknowledge my partnership and collaboration with my models: Betsy, Kaylee, Kim, Natalia, Natalie and Sara. As I kneel before them they reveal their “Genetic Imprints.”