Book Review: Noema by Michael Swann

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Book Review: Noema by Michael Swann

November 3rd, 2024 by Walter Borghisani

Noema is a philosophical term that refers to the object of intellectual perception. In the specific case of this project, and in phenomenological philosophy (or phenomenology), Noema refers to the aspect of the object in its giving of experience. According to the German phenomenologist Edmund Husserl, in the lived experience there is not really any object: the cognitive act is founded on the perceptive act. Even an apparition or a hallucination contains a noema, since the seer experiences an object in his consciousness independently of its existence in the real world.

“In 1961, in the small Spanish village of San Sebastian de Garabandal, four young girls had an apparition of the Virgin Mary. They entered a state of ecstasy in which they became completely unaware of their surroundings and sensory perceptions. Reportedly, witnesses would pinch the girls, pierce their skin with needles, lift them up and drop them onto rough rocks, and yet they remained entranced. Twenty years later, in the town of Medjugorje, in Bosnia & Herzegovina, six children also had simultaneous visions of the Virgin, with similar ecstatic qualities.”

— Michael Swann

Michael Swann investigated and photographed the places where the Virgin appeared, focusing on combinations of blue and white (the colors of the Virgin), faces or silhouettes in the landscape, biblical references related to the story of the Virgin, specific details of the stories of the apparitions. In general, on anything that could have a mystical meaning.

Noema ©Michael Swann

“While I don’t ever want to reveal whether or not I came away from the locations with any personal answers (because that could direct the way the viewer approaches the work), I certainly did feel something while shooting this project. Both locations had an aura for me, and quite strong and opposing ones. Medjugorje is a fairly large town, which kind of relies on the tourism of being an apparition site now, but there are pockets of the space, where the tourists and those on pilgrimages don’t go, that made me feel like I was being watched. The same goes for Garabandal, the whole time I stayed in the village I felt like I was being watched.”

— Michael Swann

Noema ©Michael Swann

The work mixes different types of images, including black and white photographs and red-scale images, details of the stone structures of churches and statues.

“The red images came about as a way of me channeling some of my contextual research into the project. The majority of the work is about my experience being in these spaces, and the appropriated images of the visionaries as they experienced the visions. But there was so much I learnt about the visions, about the way the children were treated, about what was seen by the visionaries, and about the historical contexts of both of these locations, that all added up to paint a really interesting picture of what these apparitions really meant for the visionaries, communities and followers. I didn’t necessarily want to taint the mysticism of the work by explaining all of this in text, as that’s not really what the project is about. But I also felt there was a way of adding these elements in tonally. In the book, the red pages envelope the other images, at the beginning and the end – setting a tone without giving anything away or directing the viewer to any answers.”

— Michael Swann

The series also includes stills from a video of the seers, captured in the presence of the Virgin, which has been re-photographed, at close range, on the screen. Pixels have then been added and the images have been digitally degraded, in order to highlight the separation between the viewer and the experience. Between what is apparently seen and what is photographable.

Noema ©Michael Swann

“Until the age of eleven I was a Catholic. Although I lost my faith, I felt no sense of loss. Many years later I was told the story of a friend, who heard the voice of God speak to her while she was alone in her bedroom. To move from belief to non-belief felt simple, but to pass in the other direction seemed to require a substantial spiritual encounter. Perhaps I could believe once more, if I were to receive a messenger from God.”

— Michael Swann

This project is an attempt to use photography to express the ineffable, the phenomenological: the experience of experience, what it means or feels like to see. The photographer aims to create a collective noema of the Virgin Mary, through the use of various signifiers associated with her and esoteric images created in the places of apparitions. The subject is complex, tortuous, but mitigated by a photographic approach that I would define as serene. The storytelling, in the progression of the book, expands; among the images there are some blank pages, as if they were pauses for reflection or even flashes.

Noema ©Michael Swann

Whether Michael Swann succeeds in his aim is, of course, up to the conscience and experience of those who will hold the book in their hands. Individually, because the intent of this project is to stimulate a reflection on how much individual experience can condition our perception of the world around us.

“Faith exists so far outside of just religion, it permeates all of our day to day, we have faith in the idea that any plans we make for the future will come to be and we won’t die before they do! Whether we apply that in a spiritual way or not, we very often rely on faith. And that faith stems from a lack of knowing, which is where I like my work to exist. I’m fully aware that my work won’t convert anyone to believe, nor would it take faith away, but I like that it poses questions.”

— Michael Swann

Noema
Michael Swann
The book is published by Kult Books
Hardcover with red foiling
176 pages, 56 photographs
Offset printing
15 x 21 cm
May 2024

About Walter Borghisani

www.walterborghisani.com

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Location: Online Type: Book Review, Documentary, Faith, Religion

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