On Sight Unseen

Leave Your Shoes at the Door: On Meditation and Photography Lately I’ve been re-examining my approach to photography, to sharing my photography and the utility of photography in my life. I have always said that photography is a way of escaping the rigid confines of a life that rests in unyielding rationality and cold logic. Most of what I share here is of the human variety, assuming that’s why people come. Yet, regardless of how I couch the subject matter in artistic and aesthetic terms, there is an inevitability in the pruriency of the interpretation. And then there is the actual act. There is something to be said for the process of crafting an image as opposed to snapping a shot. Too much of the time, I’m reactive in a shoot, responding to the movement and the emotion of the model. There are times when I end a shoot early simply because I can no longer take the interaction; it’s not because the model is inane or banal, it’s simply that I’m not wired to spend a lot of time interacting with other human beings. And even though I’m usually constantly checking and tweaking the lights, adjusting the position and thinking of how to move to the goal of the desired image, it is still a process that more resembles grabbing what’s there than forming what will be. Lately I’ve been experimenting more with my walk around camera. The limited number of high quality lenses for it have forced to me to use adaptors and various old manual focus lenses. In doing so, I’ve rediscovered the meditative aspects of photography. It is of some revelation then what a few simple changes to the ergonomics of the tool will do to the process. The camera itself seems geared to manual focus with focus peaking and MF assist while the tilting LCD screen allows both waist level and above the head shooting. I’m not naming names here because this is not an advertisement for the camera but a realization that in this case, function follows form.  And in this is the function of photographing still life. The contemplative aspect of this is inescapable. If done poorly, the results are trite, ordinary, banal. And yet, there is a truth to the object. If natural, it is the summation of a set of forces and chance occurrences that results in its being. If constructed, one can imagine the thought processes, the imagination and the effort invested in its construction. But the object is silent. So truth is not so much obtained by impartation but by observation, imagination and ultimately contemplation. Done well, it should be slow careful work, a process of reflection and examination.  I don’t know if I’m doing it well yet but the thought of getting there is exciting in a serene way.

Leave Your Shoes at the Door: On Meditation and Photography

Lately I’ve been re-examining my approach to photography, to sharing my photography and the utility of photography in my life. I have always said that photography is a way of escaping the rigid confines of a life that rests in unyielding rationality and cold logic. Most of what I share here is of the human variety, assuming that’s why people come. Yet, regardless of how I couch the subject matter in artistic and aesthetic terms, there is an inevitability in the pruriency of the interpretation. And then there is the actual act.

There is something to be said for the process of crafting an image as opposed to snapping a shot. Too much of the time, I’m reactive in a shoot, responding to the movement and the emotion of the model. There are times when I end a shoot early simply because I can no longer take the interaction; it’s not because the model is inane or banal, it’s simply that I’m not wired to spend a lot of time interacting with other human beings. And even though I’m usually constantly checking and tweaking the lights, adjusting the position and thinking of how to move to the goal of the desired image, it is still a process that more resembles grabbing what’s there than forming what will be.

Lately I’ve been experimenting more with my walk around camera. The limited number of high quality lenses for it have forced to me to use adaptors and various old manual focus lenses. In doing so, I’ve rediscovered the meditative aspects of photography.

It is of some revelation then what a few simple changes to the ergonomics of the tool will do to the process. The camera itself seems geared to manual focus with focus peaking and MF assist while the tilting LCD screen allows both waist level and above the head shooting. I’m not naming names here because this is not an advertisement for the camera but a realization that in this case, function follows form. 

And in this is the function of photographing still life. The contemplative aspect of this is inescapable. If done poorly, the results are trite, ordinary, banal. And yet, there is a truth to the object. If natural, it is the summation of a set of forces and chance occurrences that results in its being. If constructed, one can imagine the thought processes, the imagination and the effort invested in its construction. But the object is silent. So truth is not so much obtained by impartation but by observation, imagination and ultimately contemplation. Done well, it should be slow careful work, a process of reflection and examination. 

I don’t know if I’m doing it well yet but the thought of getting there is exciting in a serene way.

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