A Walk with Sisyphus

ABOUT A WALK WITH SISYPHUS

I entered college 55 years ago at a Catholic University not
being aware that even though I was matriculating towards a BS in accounting I
had to complete 24 credits in Philosophy and Theology in order to
graduate.  Life’s struggles started to
impact on me at this time.  Up until this
time my life had been on the streets with Made men, drugs, suicide, bookies,
murders, race riots and finally the death of my father.  Fortunately, my father left enough money to
complete college. 

Amid this I found college a struggle, while I did well in
high school, I found that the competition and work required daunting.  Surprisingly the one Philosophy course I discovered
solace in was the one that let us explore existentialism and most importantly
Albert Camus’s essay “the Myth of Sisyphus”. The Greek king’s plight was a
metaphor life’s struggles and the choices we have given that struggle.

We all have experienced life’s struggles. The thoughts of the
inevitability that death brings, knowing the absurdity that life offers, the
despair it creates and most importantly the hope you are obligated the find and
live for authentically.

When given the task to choose a subject  to expand my Photographic creativity I
decided to find and display  images
related to existentialism  So, I read the
myth of Sisyphus again, and again and again and through That reading I
understood that Camus and his peers rendered Four Tenets of Existentialism:

1)     
Death, most Importantly is the Inevitable place
we are going to.

2)     
Absurdity. This likened to the Struggle of
Sisyphus but mostly to man’s indifference to men.

3)     
Despair and Suicide. What is the last thought of
the man looking down the depth he is about to fall and the last thing he sees
is his Shoelaces?

4)     
Hope. 
This is deeper than just your ordinary hope. We all aspire to that. We
now turn Sartre. “We are condemned to be free” For him the most important thing
for man to express his freedom. It was a requirement for living. Most
importantly was to live life authentically.

My challenge was to express the 4 tenets in visually images
to the everyday person and lend them to reality.  And impress upon the viewer the end
philosophical understanding is that through freedom and authenticity your life
has impeccable Grandeur.