I have learned a lot over the last 10-15 years, much of which I discussed at the Pain Summit a few years ago.
The biggest piece of wisdom that I can offer any person who has the misfortune of asking is this: the “will” that we exert on our environment is far more limited than we think, and a greater percentage of lives are accounted for by happen-chance than most of us could (or should) ever be comfortable with.
I considered creating a double exposure with a pair of dice up in my head with my eyes looking up and crossed to midline, but it seemed a little more complicated than I wanted, so I elected to use a long exposure only. The image slowly progressed from 2 to 5 dice, from 1 die in motion through 4 still-ones to all 5 moving, from exclusion of my hand to purposeful placement as part of the composition, and eventually one die that would remain in my hand (after all, the game is mostly rigged against us). After 250+ exposures, this was the best image. Of course, the irony is not lost on me that I could not will myself to create the image I desired sooner and that this was only the best image of many that were never quite right.
It is titled the HAND OF gOD to emphasize my view that our lives are not in the hand of god in the traditional sense, but rather to emphasize the forces of nature, fate, and circumstance that are guised by others as their God.
Later, someone would ask me if the image was in reference to a quote from Einstein that I had to confess that I had never before read or heard. It is reported that Einstein has said, “God does not play dice,” but those were not his words. Instead, he wrote in a letter, “Quantum mechanics … delivers much, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not play dice.”
Einstein, of course, was mistaken.