Bear Kirkpatrick’s Passionate and Sacred Photography

Bear Kirkpatrick, They Would Fain To Blacken Out The Heavens With Their Bodies - two figures in the stones

Note: Contains nudity.

Bear Kirkpatrick is a photographer who ventures deep into the wilderness, seeking “hierophanies.” The term derives from the theories of religious historian Mircea Eliade, referring to moments when the sacred realm breaks into the profane (the material, everyday world). Kirkpatrick’s portraits feature nude figures in beautiful, tortured communion with the earth. In postures of longing and sorrow, their bodies unfurl with poetic expressions of the embodiment and transcendence of pain.

Bear Kirkpatrick, And Up They Go One Two Three - figure with two deer

Bear Kirkpatrick, The Thought Of Thinking - nude figure with elk

Bear Kirkpatrick, The Truth About God - two figures twisting in the grass

Bear Kirkpatrick, The Masts Bent To The Water - two figures lying on fur

Bear Kirkpatrick, The Dread And Fear Of You - figures and flowers

Bear Kirkpatrick - two figures in shadows on stones

Bear Kirkpatrick, The Took On The Language Of The Enemy - figure crouching on bank under tree

Bear Kirkpatrick, They Could Take Their Salt From The Ashes - two figures against a tree

Bear Kirkpatrick, Inside Isaiah God Saw The Worldsheet Burning - figure submerged in pond with lily pads

Images © Bear Kirkpatrick

Via Beautiful/Decay