The story of Genesis is said to have been written down some twenty-six centuries ago, when the Israelites were living in exile on the banks of Babylon. These texts are not historical accounts. “These are hidden messages. Wisdom in the form of stories with which people in ancient Israel encouraged each other during difficult times.”

For thousands of years, humanity has been searching for a beginning. With the rise of science and globalization, you would expect creation stories to lose their meaning, but perhaps the opposite is happening. At a time when life on earth is threatened by climate change, these ancient stories seem to offer renewed support.

*“All stories are connected; new ones are woven from threads of old,”* writes Robin Wall Kimmerer in one of the final chapters of her impressive book *A Braid of Sacred Grass*. She cites a Mayan creation story and emphasizes the importance of retelling and reinterpreting stories—as an act of reciprocity.

For the art work 'Genesis', I illuminated various materials I associated with the creation story on large white sheets of photographic paper, cut directly from the roll. In a single, organic movement, the images of the first seven days in the darkroom came to life. Seven sections emerged, ending with the painted all-seeing eye and the touch.

To depict the creation of humanity on day six, I placed myself in various places on the paper and pressed the enlarger switch. The light didn't pass through me, but descended over me, revealing the contours of my body. A shadow of myself remained in the places where I had lain.

Was I playing God for a moment in the darkroom, painting with light in the darkness, where the sheets of paper rolled through the developing bath, were fixed, and rinsed in running water? The paper had to be dried  to return to its original state—no longer white and empty, but filled with deep feelings in black, white, and shades of gray.

My God, the days, the years fly by.

Old stories give our lives a future…