DOUGLAS Curran, pictured abcve, spent seven years on the road, documenting the beliefs of UFO visionaries for his book In Advance f the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space. The Archangel Uriel, ight, believed Curran was an emissary from the Spacebrothers ; When he took this photograph for the bock. ocusing their brain waves. -they create a ‘cosniic brain battery’ to summon UFOs «10 land. Spontaneously, one mber breaks into a low incanta-. Onn, Ommmm...” rises slowly «from the back of his throat, the con- ‘sonant lengthening with each con- traction of his diaphragm. One by one, people on either side pick up ‘the mantra until the clearing is filled with deeply resonating m’s. _ Silence. Heads are slowly lifted, necks arch back until all eyes stare direct- _ly upward. No one speaks for sever- al moments, All wait in hushed expectation for the cosmic connection ar the whoosh of a saucer’s drive system. ‘BY DEANA LANCASTER Contributing Writer IT was’ the “annual New Age Convention at Mt. Ranier, ‘Washington, and Douglas ‘Curran was there to record the ‘“event, just as he had countless - others in a seven-year odyssey around the continent. <2 The North Vancouver man’s intent was ta document the beliel's of UFO. visionaries, their rituals. “and the artifacts th icy have con- structed in’ anticipation of. alien beings.fanding on earth. ‘As-Curran observed the gather- ing. the gathered throng began to sing devotional songs, hoping to entice the nine gleaming disc- shaped objects glimpsed at. the site by an Idaho businessman in 1947 to return. “One of the favorites the rhythm led by an autoharp., is sung to the tune of the old camp spiritual, ‘Kum-ba-ya’,” says Curran, in his book. “Flying saucer Lord, Kum-ba-ya Flying saucer Lord, Kunt-ba-ya Flying saucer Lord, Kum-ba-ya . Ohhh, Lord, Kum-ba-va" In 1986, he published his find- ings. The photographs and stories, many of them more bizarre than his description of the Mt. Ranier con- vention, formed the book in Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space. with a foreword written by Tom Wolfe. Now, 10 years later, the book is recognized as a leading authority on the topic and has been used as a resource for the hi series, The X- Files. WW was also the inspiration for u feature length documentary film of the same title and has been excermed in a number of publica- tions. On July 6 Curran opened an international photographic exhibit and symposium in France with a presentation based on his book. The exhib, “Recontres Arles,” is an annual event and to many, it’s known as the “Cannes of Photographic art.” When he began his project near- ly 20 years ago. he only had a vague idea of what was out there. “It was like a puzzle be- cause you can't go to any one place and find this stutf.” he says. “It was a matter of. just keep driving, keep asking. All these groups are more or less working in isolation.” Some of his research was done by chance. Once he met 4 man at an abandoned airforce base in the Mohave Desert. For no specific rea-. son, Curran had driven in, through gates that said “Keep Out” and then seen the man pop his head over a hill. Curran chased him through the mesquite until the man suddenly stopped and invited him back to his camp. “He’s camping with another guy and we come up and he’s painting this image of a spaceship encounter- ing an airliner. And he turns around and says ‘How do you like this one?’” Curran did. and the picture is in the book. Cusran himself does not care about the existence of life on other planets, or about UFOs. “Actually they have no interest for me at all.” Sunday, July 14, 1996 — North Shore News — 43 NV resident resurrects book for French exhibit Yet he ; wasn't amused by the characters he met while on the road. “[T think my interest over- whelmed my cynicism.” he said. “It’s disorienting more than it is amusing.” He gradually became, if not ‘friends with the people who were his ‘subjects. at least accepted by them. “The Archangel Uriel regarded me as an emissary from the Spacebrothers. So, what? I'm going to argue with her? | just said “Yes, and {'m here to make the pictures.” The inspiration for the project came from a desire to record the popular mass culture of his time photographically, said Curran. “George Orwell wrote an essay about popular culture, and he wrote how a nation’s aspirations and their ideals and their morality can be glimpsed by reading the tabloids, the junkier newspapers.” ~And so da Advance of the Landing became an effort to capture images of his time and place. “Even “now it’s gone,” Curran said. Since the time when he was doing his research, atti-’ tudes toward outer space. and the possibility of alien life have become more accepted, more mainstream. Curran says his book was ahead of its time. It’s out of print and he’s trying to convince the publisher to do another run. {These days, Curran isn’t working on any similar projects. He’s gotten quite comfortable in his unique little house in North Van, with his cat Mr.’ Squeak, and some monstrous gold- fish who live in the pond he built in the backyard. He works in the focal movie industry as a feature-film stills pho- tographer. Although he's known as one of the best, he says it's some- thing he does for the money. “They know if they hire me {Il go out and get the pictures and do the job.” On the set of Alive, doing the job meant hanging on the end of a rope over 4 200-foot chasm. During the filming of Alaska he was lashed to the side of a pontoon boat in Tofino. He’s currently working on the Disney production Deep Rising, filming at North Vancouver's old Versatile Pacific Shipyards site.